Double Trouble
by Hannahfour
Summary: Guthrie and Heidi meet their match when Hannah invites her friend's two boys to stay with them for the weekend while their parents go out of town.
1. Chapter 1

Guthrie and I are so excited!

"When are they gonna get here Hannah?" Guthrie yells. We're standing in front of the window in the living room looking out at our driveway.

"Be patient!" Hannah yells from the kitchen. She laughs and says, "they'll be here any minute!"

"I hope they're nice," I tell Guthrie.

"Me too," he says. Then he yells into the kitchen, "Hannah are they nice?"

Hannah comes into the living room and says, "I've never met them before, but I'm sure they are. Their mom is really nice."

We're waiting for Hannah's friend to come over with her family. Ever since Christmas, Hannah's been working part time at Marie's Restaurant. That's where she met Tiffany, they work together. Tiffany and her husband are new to town and their going away to San Francisco for the weekend to celebrate their ten year anniversary. Hannah told them their boys could stay with us while they go away, so Guthrie and I are really excited to have someone new to play with.

"They're here!" I yell and Guthrie and I run to the front door.

We race out to the car driving on our driveway and wait for it to stop. Hannah is behind us now and when the people get out of the car she says hi.

"Hi Hannah. This is my husband Fred." Hannah and Fred shake hands. "And these are my boys. This is Josh, he's seven, and this is Caleb, he's eight."

"Hello!" Hannah says to them and then she says, "this is Heidi and Guthrie." We all say hi to each other and then Hannah says, "and here comes Adam."

I look over to the barn and see Adam coming. I look back at the boys. Caleb is almost as tall as me and he looks really excited to be here. Josh is just a little bit shorter than Caleb and he's kind of hiding behind his brother a little. Guthrie and I talk to the boys while the adults talk.

"Is this whole place yours?" Caleb asks. "You have a barn? With horses? Can we ride them? I've never ridden a horse before."

Guthrie and I smile at Caleb and Josh and start telling them about our ranch. They're so excited and so are we. The Pattersons take the boys' suitcases out of the car and we all walk up to the house.

"This is your house?" Caleb asks when we get inside. "It's so big!"

Guthrie and I give them a quick tour of the house while the adults talk. When we're done with the tour Mrs. Patterson says it's time to go and we all go outside to their car.

"Give me a kiss goodbye," she tells her boys. Caleb and Josh hug their parents and promise they'll be good. Then they wave goodbye to their parents as they drive off.

"How about some chocolate chip cookies?" Hannah asks once the car is gone. The boys like that idea and so do I.

"Hannah's cookies are the best!" I tell them. We all start to follow Hannah to the house but Adam calls Guthrie and I back.

"What?" Guthrie asks.

"Yeah what?" I yell as I run up to him and jump. He catches me and holds me while he talks to us.

"Thank you for offering to help out with the boys this weekend. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun, but I want to remind you of a few things," Adam says. Then he talks in his serious voice. "Remember this is a ranch. There's a lot of dangerous things that can happen on a ranch..,"

"I know," Guthrie says. "We already know all that."

"Let me finish. These boys have never been on a ranch before. They haven't been around farm animals either. I'm counting on you two to show them how things work around here, and to help keep them out of trouble."

"Why are you looking at _me_ when you say that?" I ask.

He ignores me and keeps on talking. "As long as you both remember to follow the rules on the ranch there shouldn't be any trouble."

"Ok," Guthrie says. "You can count on us!"

"Yeah! We'll follow _all_ the rules!" I tell him. "You can count on us!"

"Good, I knew I could," he says. He hugs me before he puts me down and then he walks over to the truck. "Tell Hannah I'm going into town to pick up Brian and I'll be back by five."

"Ok," we yell as we run to the house.

* * *

I can't believe this is happening! I'm so mad! I kick at the dirt as I'm walking down our driveway towards the house. It's not a paved driveway, it's a dirt driveway kind of like a road that goes in between our house and the barn and pasture. Daniel is getting out of the jeep as I walk by him.

"What's wrong Heidi?" He asks. "You look pretty mad about something."

"I _am_ mad!" I yell as I stomp by him.

"Wanna talk about it?" He calls out to me.

"I can't! I have to go to my room!" I yell back at him.

I open the small gate in the old white picket fence that surrounds our house, and bang it against the fence as I walk through and follow the dirt path leading to our porch steps. Evan is just walking out of the house as I stomp up the steps.

He laughs and asks, "what's wrong with you little sis?"

I keep my head down as I stomp by him and shout, "nothing!" When I reach the front door I open it and slam it closed behind me. As I run up the stairs to my bedroom I hear Hannah call out to me from the living room.

"Heidi? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

I ignore her and when I reach the top of the stairs I run the rest of the way to my room and slam that door shut too. I sit on my bed and think about what just happened.

I knew I shouldn't have done it. It just happened so fast! Sometimes when I get mad I do things without thinking. If you asked Adam, he would say I _always_ do things without thinking. At least he wasn't around to see what I just did. But I didn't know Crane was there. If I would've known that I wouldn't have done it. These two little boys are driving me crazy!

Hannah told me and Guthrie it would be nice if we could play with Caleb and Josh and keep them _occupied_ while she made dinner. As soon as we finished the cookies Guthrie thought it would be fun to show them our animals in the barn. We have chores we need to finish out there anyway.

So we took the boys out to the barn to show them our animals. I have to feed the chickens so I get some feed and take it into the chicken coop. Josh and Caleb want to help so I give them some food and show them what to do. They think it's a lot of fun. Guthrie and I leave to get some fresh water for the chickens. We were only gone for a minute.

"What the heck are you doing?!" I yell when we get back to the coop.

Josh and Caleb are running around the coop chasing the chickens! Guthrie and I yell at them to stop, but they won't listen. When they finally get tired of running they sit down on the ground to rest.

"You guys can't chase the chickens like that," Guthrie tells them.

"Sorry," Caleb says.

"I'm sorry," Josh says, "it was just so much fun to do!"

"Well don't do that again!" I tell them. "You scared them!"

Guthrie and I look at each other and shake our heads. Then Guthrie says, "why don't you show them the sheep while I feed the pigs."

"Can we help you?" Josh asks.

"Ok, but you have to do it the way I tell you to," Guthrie says and he shows them what to do. They're supposed to put the food in the trough, but Josh thinks it would be funny to pick out one of the corn cobs and throw it at a pig! Hard! Caleb thinks that's funny so he does it too.

"Stop doing that!" Guthrie yells. "You'll hurt them!"

They start to pick out more cobs, but Guthrie and I grab them all.

"Why do you want to hurt the animals like that?" I ask them.

"We were just trying to feed them," Caleb says.

"No you weren't!" I yell. I feel like punching him but Guthrie knows that and he stands in front of me and puts his hands on my shoulders.

"Don't do it Heidi," he says.

"But you know he's lying! They were doing that on purpose!"

Guthrie pulls me away from them and drags me over to the door and then he talks quietly. "Heidi, you can't hit him. You'll get in trouble if you do that. Remember, Adam's counting on us."

I sigh and say, "I know. But Guthrie, they're so mean to the pigs and they don't listen at all!"

"I know. We'll tell Hannah about it when we go inside. For now, just try to be nice and if they're mean to the animals again we'll take them inside."

"Ok, but these boys aren't nice at all!"

Guthrie tells me quietly, "I know! This is going to be a long weekend!"

"I know," I tell him. "I'm definitely _not_ looking forward to the next two days!"

"Three!" Guthrie says. "We still have to get through the rest of today."

He's right. It's probably only four o'clock in the afternoon. We walk back to the boys and they ask to see the horses next. The horses are outside the barn right now so Guthrie leads the boys over to them. I go get a little bit of hay to bring over to feed the horses a little snack. I show the boys my horse, Lucy, and let them pet her. Then I give them each some hay and show them how to hold it by keeping their hand flat so Lucy can eat it. They like that. They want to feed the rest of the horses so I go get some more hay.

I give the hay to Josh and Caleb, and Guthrie and I lead them around to each horse. We tell them the name of the horse while they feed it.

"Don't go near Diablo," Guthrie tells them. He points to Evan's horse who is way over on the other side of the pen and says, "he can be mean sometimes. Just feed these horses over here."

Guthrie and I sit down on a hay bale and watch the boys.

"What should we do with them next?" Guthrie asks.

"I don't know."

Josh comes running over to us and points up to the loft window.

"Can we go up there?" He asks.

"No!" We both yell.

"Are your brothers cowboys?" He asks.

"Yes. I'm a cowboy too," Guthrie tells him.

"I'm a cow_girl_," I tell him.

"Do your brothers know how to shoot a gun?" He asks.

"Of course!" I say. "You can't be a cowboy or a cowgirl without knowing how to shoot a shotgun!" I glance over to see where Caleb is and I jump up. "Don't go near Diablo! He'll bite you!" I yell as Caleb walks slowly towards Diablo with his hand held out wanting Diablo to eat the hay off it. Guthrie and I run towards Caleb, but Diablo sees him coming and runs away on his own.

"Caleb! You can't go near Diablo like that," Guthrie reminds him. "You could get hurt!"

"I wasn't afraid of him," Caleb tells us.

"You should be!" I yell at him. "Have you ever been bit by a horse?" I ask.

"No."

"Well, it hurts!" I yell.

Josh comes running up and yells, "Caleb! Caleb! Their brothers know how to shoot a shotgun!"

"They do?!"

"We all know how to shoot a gun," Guthrie says.

"You do?"

"Yeah, Hannah can shoot a shotgun too," I say.

"You and Guthrie know how to shoot a shotgun?" Josh asks. His eyes are big as he looks up at us.

"No, me and Heidi have BB guns that we shoot. When I turn thirteen Brian's gonna teach me how to shoot a shotgun," Guthrie tells him.

"Can you show us how to shoot a BB gun?" Caleb asks.

"Haven't you ever played with one?" I ask. I've had my BB gun since I was five or six.

"No," they both say.

Guthrie turns to me and says, "go get our BB guns and we'll take them to the river to shoot."

I run towards the house. My BB gun is under my bed. Guthrie's is under his bed and the BBs are kept in the barn. We keep empty soda and beer cans in the barn to use as targets. Guthrie will get that stuff and I'll get the guns.

When I run out of the house with the guns and run towards the barn I don't see Guthrie. He must still be inside the barn getting the targets and BBs. I do see Josh and Caleb and I can't believe what they're doing! They're running around like crazy yelling at the horses! They're spooking all the horses and that's dangerous!

"Stop!" I yell as I run faster. "Stop!"

The horses aren't happy. I watch Caleb hit Lucy and laugh as he chases her. "Guthrie!" I yell, hoping he'll hear me and come out of the barn. He's closer to them than I am right now. He doesn't hear me and I watch Josh and Caleb continue to chase the horses and I get madder and madder the closer I get. I can't believe what I'm seeing! Guthrie finally comes out and yells at them to stop and they finally do.

When I finally reach them I'm really mad! And that's when I do something I know I shouldn't do. And now I'm sitting on my bed in my room.

* * *

I hear the truck driving on the driveway and I know Adam and Brian are back from town. It won't be long before Crane tells Adam what I did. I get up off my bed and open my door a crack. I peek out the crack and wait for the front door to open. When it does I see Adam come in fast and he's holding my BB gun.

"Heidi?!" He yells, but I know he doesn't want me to answer. Hannah comes running out of the kitchen and asks, "what's wrong Adam?"

"Heidi!" He yells again while he's running up the stairs. I jump back away from my door and sit on my bed just as my door flys open.

"What were you thinking?!" Adam yells from my doorway. My room is really small. It used to be my mom and dad's closet, but they made it into a nursery for me before I was born. It fits my bed, a dresser and a chair that I throw things on. So Adam is standing in the doorway looking angry and yelling.

"Crane says you loaded your BB gun and aimed it at the boys and told them to run! How could you do that?!"

I don't know what to say. That _is_ what I did. I look up at him and shrug my shoulders. "I'm sorry. I wasn't really going to shoot them. I just wanted to scare them. They were spooking the horses and they were mean to the other animals earlier when we were trying to feed them."

"Well you scared them alright! They're probably still crying!"

I think about that and I smile just a little bit.

"This isn't a joke! You know you're not allowed to point this gun at anyone! Even if you're not going to shoot them. You don't point this at anyone EVER!"

I do know that. The last time I pointed my gun at someone Adam kept my gun for a whole month.

"You know the rules. I'm keeping this," he says as he holds my gun up. "You can stay in here until dinnertime." Then he leaves with my gun and I fall back on my bed and sigh. How am I gonna last a whole weekend with these boys if I can't even last a couple of hours with them?


	2. Chapter 2

It's boring in my room. I hate getting sent to my room. I look at the clock. 5:45. Dinner should be ready soon. I hear the front door open downstairs and I hear Guthrie, Josh and Caleb talking. I get up off my bed and go stand in my doorway. Hannah is telling them all to go upstairs and get washed up for dinner. Then she looks up and sees me.

"You get washed up too, Heidi," she says. She looks mad. I wonder if she's mad at me for scaring the boys. I bet she is. Hannah's usually happy and smiling and she's not smiling now and she doesn't look happy.

Guthrie and the boys run upstairs to the bathroom and while Josh and Caleb wash their hands, Guthrie walks over to my room.

"I can't believe you did that, Heidi," he says.

"I know. We're they crying for long?"

"Not that long. I know they were scared, but it really was kind of funny to see you point the gun at them and tell them to run." We laugh about that, but only for a second because Crane walks by.

"It wasn't funny at all!" He yells. Yelling for Crane means talking in a loud voice. "That was a very irresponsible thing to do!"

I look down at the floor and say, "sorry."

"You've got two little kids you have to say sorry to. They're walking over here, so now would be a good time to tell them. And another thing, you know, Hannah has to tell their parents what happened today when they call tonight."

I didn't think about that. No wonder why she's mad at me. When Caleb and Josh get to my doorway I tell them I'm sorry.

They both accept my apology and then they start jumping up and down and yelling, "guess what?! Guthrie said we could go horseback riding after dinner!"

I look at Guthrie and my eyes are really big. "Really?"

"Yeah. Evan said he take them."

"Dinner's ready!" Hannah calls out. "Come and get it!"

All of us race downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Whoa, hold it!" Brian says as we squeeze by him. "We need some extra chairs at the table."

Guthrie and I get two chairs from the living room and bring them into the kitchen. Caleb and Josh are already sitting at the table and Caleb is in my spot! I always sit next to Hannah. Hannah sits at one end of the table and Adam at the other. We all kind of have our own spots that we normally sit in. As my brothers start coming into the kitchen I bring the chair I'm holding over to my spot at the table.

"Can you move please Caleb?" I ask.

"I want to sit here," he tells me.

"That's my spot," I tell him.

"Heidi, just let him sit there," Crane says. "He's our guest."

I sigh and say, "well can you at least scoot over so I can put the chair here?" I want him to scoot closer to Crane, that way I can put the extra chair in my spot and I'll be sitting where I usually do.

"No, then you'll be sitting here."

"But in a different chair," I say. "You're sitting in _my_ chair."

"Heidi, just put your chair here," Hannah says and she motions for me to put it right at the end of the table where the leg is. Guthrie has to sit where a leg is too. We both look at each other and glare. I know exactly what he's thinking. This is so unfair!

When everyone's sitting down and all the food is on the table everyone starts talking to each other and passing the food around. We're having spaghetti tonight which is one of my favorites. When Crane passes it to Caleb he says, "my mom doesn't put sauce on my noodles. Me and Josh eat ours plain."

"What?!" I ask. "Who doesn't have sauce on their spaghetti? Without it you're just eating plain old noodles!"

"Heidi, some people like different things," Hannah says.

Crane tells Caleb, "try some. Hannah's spaghetti is the best!"

I agree Hannah's spaghetti is good, but Brian's is the best. His secret ingredient is hot sauce. That's his secret ingredient for everything.

"Try some," I tell him.

"No thanks." Josh won't put any on his plate either.

"I can make you some plain noodles," Hannah suggests.

What! If Guthrie or I don't like something we either eat it or go hungry. "Why are you gonna do that?" I ask.

"Because they're our guests and I don't want them to go hungry," she says.

I look at Guthrie and he shrugs his shoulders. After Hannah gets up to cook more noodles, I look around the table and listen to my brothers tell Josh and Caleb roundup stories. I know them all so I'm not really listening to the story part, I'm listening more to _how_ they're telling the stories. They all sound excited and Josh and Caleb are listening and their eyes are big. I don't know why, but I start to feel mad. I look at Guthrie and even _he's_ talking about the roundup stories. He's been on three roundups and I've only been on one. Why is everyone paying so much attention to these boys?

Hannah brings the plain noodles over and hands each of them a plate before she sits down in her spot. She doesn't have any roundup stories so I wonder how she feels about that. I look up at her and watch her smile and laugh at the stories. I guess she doesn't feel left out.

"How come you're not eating?" I hear her say to me. I jump a little because that kind of startles me. Sometimes when I'm thinking hard I don't hear when people are talking to me.

"What?"

"I said, how come you're not eating?"

"I am." I put a bite of spaghetti in my mouth.

"You look a little sad. Is something wrong?" She asks.

I don't know what to say to that because I don't understand why I feel so mad. So instead I tell her, "I'm sad because Adam took my BB gun away."

"I heard about that. That wasn't a very nice thing you did to the boys."

I stop looking at her and look at my plate instead. I think about telling her how mean those boys were to our animals, but that's still no excuse for what I did.

Adam yells down to Hannah, "what's for dessert, Honey?"

"Tiffany said the boys favorite desert was lemon meringue pie, so I made that," she says.

The boys are excited to hear that, but I'm not. I don't like that kind of pie. I don't like those lemon bar cookies Hannah makes either. "What else did you make?" I ask.

She looks down at me and says, "I'm sorry but I only had time to make that." She gets up from the table to get desert and Adam gets up to help her.

I glare at her and I hear Guthrie whisper, "Heidi, don't get mad. I'm sure there's still some chocolate chip cookies left over from earlier today." He knows how much I don't like lemon desserts. He also knows Hannah makes something else for me when she does.

I'm mad. I think about what I can do to _show_ how mad I am and the only thing I can think of is to spill my milk. Better yet, I should break the glass. I pick up my glass of milk and throw it down on the floor as hard as I can. It makes a loud crashing sound when it hits the floor and breaks. That got everyone's attention.

"Oops, sorry," I say. "That was an accident." Crane gets up to help clean it up and Hannah comes over too.

"That wasn't an accident!" I hear Josh yell. "I saw you throw it on the floor!"

Now everyone's staring at me. "No I didn't!" I yell. Why'd he have to be looking at me!

"Yes you did! You picked it up like this," he picks up his glass, "and then you went like this!" He pretends to throw his glass hard.

"I did not!" I yell. I jump up and my chair falls backwards and crashes to the floor. "You're a liar!"

"Heidi!" Hannah says.

"What?! That's what he is! A liar!"

"No I'm not!"

"Go to your room," Adam tells me.

"What?! Why?! It was an accident!" I yell.

"Because you're being rude to Josh."

I glare at Adam and fold my arms across my chest.

He glares right back at me and yells, "go!"

I start to cry and I stomp out of the kitchen. I'm so mad! I'm even madder than I was before! I don't like these boys being here!

* * *

After I've been in my room for a while I can hear people clearing off the table and I know dinner is over. Good. Maybe now I can come out of my room. I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and I'm guessing it's Adam. When he gets to my doorway I look up at him and see it's not Adam, it's Brian.

"What?" I ask.

"I heard what happened with your BB gun today," he starts to say.

I groan and flop down on my bed. "Adam already yelled at me for that so you don't have to."

"I'm not here to yell at you. I'm here to talk to you about it."

"I don't want to talk about it. Adam took my gun away and that's it. End of story," I say.

"Sit up!" He yells.

I slowly sit up and glare at him. "What?!" I yell.

"I don't think you're responsible enough to play with your BB gun without an adult around," he says.

"What?! Yes I am!" I yell and I start crying. "You can't do that!"

"Yes I can!"

"No you can't! You're not in charge of me! Adam is, and he took my gun away just like last time and when he gives it back I'm gonna play with it!" There! He looks even madder now.

"Shooting guns is kind of _our_ thing, Heidi. I'm the one that's been teaching you, and I've always told you to NEVER point a gun at people! I don't want you playing with your gun unless me, Adam, or Crane are with you."

"Then I don't want you to teach me anymore! I'll have Daniel do it!"

He glares at me and says in his real serious voice, "look kid, I'm the one teaching you and that's that! You're not shooting it without an adult watching you!"

"Then I'm never going to shoot again!" I yell. "Ever!"

"Suit yourself," he says and he leaves to go back downstairs.

This is the worst day! I lay down on my bed and cry into my pillow. I wish I hadn't pointed my gun at those boys! I hear footsteps coming down the hall and stop at my room. I sit up and dry my eyes and look at Adam.

"You were being very rude at dinner tonight. You need to apologize to Josh for calling him a liar."

"Can I come out now?"

"Only if you're going to be nice. If you're mean you'll be going to bed early."

"Ok," I say.

"Ok. Come downstairs and apologize."

I get up and follow Adam downstairs. I find Josh and tell him I'm sorry and he says it's ok. I don't know why, but I still feel angry. I feel even more angry just looking at Josh and Caleb.

"Are you going riding with us?" Guthrie asks.

"I think I'll just watch." I follow Guthrie, the boys, Evan and Ford out to the barn.

* * *

I sit on the fence and watch everyone get ready to ride. It might be kind of fun to ride, but I don't feel like doing it with them. Evan asks the boys which horses they want to ride. Josh picks Molly, and Caleb picks Lucy. What! No way is he going to ride my horse! I jump down off the fence.

"No! That's my horse! You're not riding my horse!" I yell as I run over to them.

"Heidi, come on, you're not even riding. Let Caleb ride Lucy."

"No! I'm gonna ride now and I'm riding Lucy!" I walk over to the barn to get Lucy's saddle. When I bring it back and put it on her, Caleb comes over with Evan.

"I want to ride her," he says to me.

"No!"

"Heidi just let him. You can ride Lucy whenever you want," Evan says. I look around at Ford, Guthrie and Josh. They're all up on horses. Ford is holding Molly's rope so she can't run away with Josh.

"There's other horses he can ride! Why don't you let him ride Diablo?!" I ask.

"You know I can't do that. Diablo doesn't like anyone but me to ride him. Let Caleb get on Lucy."

Caleb walks closer to me and I yell, "no!" I push him as hard as I can and he falls to the ground. He starts to cry.

"Why'd you do that?!" Evan yells. He crouches down to ask Caleb if he's ok.

I look around at everyone else and they're looking at me. I don't know why I did that. Something inside me feels mad and I don't know why. I decide to get up on Lucy and I take her out the gate and ride her away as fast as I can. I can hear Evan yelling at me to stop, but I'm not going to.

* * *

I ride Lucy as fast as she can go. I don't care where she goes, but I usually ride her to the river when I'm upset about something and that's where she's taking me. She must know.

When we get there I walk her along the river. I like it here. It's quiet. Guthrie and I come here a lot. I wish he was here with me now. I hear someone riding up and I turn to see who it is. It's Ford.

"Go away!" I yell at him.

"What's wrong?" He asks when he gets closer.

"Nothing! Just leave me alone!"

"Come on Heidi, you know you can talk to me."

He's right. I like talking to Ford because he's a good listener. I let him walk his horse next to Lucy, so we're riding side by side along the river.

"Talk to me Heidi. I know something's wrong."

"I don't know what it is. I just feel really mad!"

"About what?" He asks.

"I don't know!"

"When did you start feeling mad?"

I think about that. "I guess when Guthrie and I took Josh and Caleb to the barn to see the animals. They were really mean to them Ford." I start to cry a little.

"They were?"

"Yeah." I told him what happened before dinner and when I told him what I did with my gun he laughs out loud for a second.

"Sorry, I shouldn't laugh about that, but the picture I have of you doing that in my mind is hilarious! You actually told them to run?"

I look at him and smile, "yeah, I did."

"Well, you shouldn't have done it, but I can't say they didn't deserve it," Ford says.

I knew he would understand.

"Heidi, are you mad at the boys?"

I think about that. "Am I? I don't know. Why would I be mad at them?"

"Maybe you're jealous of them."

"What?! Why would I be jealous? They're just two little boys."

"I was watching you at dinner and it seemed like you were glaring at them while everyone was paying attention to them."

"I was?"

"Yes. I also saw you throw your glass on the floor."

"You did?"

"That wasn't an accident. You also got mad just now when Caleb wanted to ride Lucy. You've never told anyone they couldn't ride her. You're always happy to show someone how to ride her and you always help."

I sigh. He's right. I love it when people want to ride Lucy, but I didn't feel that way when Caleb wanted to ride her. I felt mad when I thought about him riding her and I didn't want to share her with him. "How do I make the mad feeling go away?" I ask.

"I don't know. Maybe just try to be nicer to them and they'll be nice back and you can be friends."

"I don't know about that," I say. "That sounds too hard to do."

"You could try. If you tried to be nice maybe that would help too."

"I don't know." I don't know if I want to try. I feel really mad.

"We should go back now," Ford says.

"Why? We just got here."

"Because I think someone's gonna want to talk to you about pushing Caleb."

"What?! You guys told?!" I feel madder now.

"No, _we_ didn't, but Josh and Caleb ran to the house and I'm pretty sure it was so they could tell on you."

"Those tattle tales! I'm definitely not going back now if they told on me!"

"I'll stay here with you if you want me too. Nobody told me to come get you. I just came to see if you wanted to talk."

"Thanks Ford." We walk in silence now until I feel like talking. "Ford, were you ever jealous of someone?"

"Yes."

That's all he says. "Who was it?" He's quiet. "Ford?"

"I was jealous of you," he says quietly.

"What?! Why?! When?!"

"I think it was when you were about six or seven. That's when you and Guthrie started becoming close. Guthrie and I were always close because you were too little to play with us most of the time. You used to bug us when you were four because you would try to follow us everywhere. You wanted to do everything we did, but you were too little so it was really annoying. Guthrie was six so you were too much of a baby for him and I was ten and he looked up to me. I was close with Evan and Daniel too, but when they turned twelve and thirteen they didn't want to hang around me as much because I was _only_ eleven they would say. Guthrie was seven then and you were five and we didn't want you around at all. When you turned six, Guthrie wanted to play with you more, because you would actually _play_ with him and I didn't want to play as much. I remember being really mad at you."

"_You_ were mad at _me_?" I ask. "You hardly ever get mad at people."

"I know, that's why I didn't understand it."

"How did you stop being mad at me?"

"Crane talked to me. He had the same thing happen to him when he got older and Daniel wanted to play with me and Evan more than him because we were more fun. It was still hard for me but then I started getting closer to Evan and Daniel."

"And me and Guthrie got closer!"

"Right."

I stop walking Lucy so she can drink from the river. "But why am I jealous of these boys when they're only here for the weekend?"

"I don't know. Maybe because everyone is paying so much attention to them and not you. Maybe because they're not that nice and only you and Guthrie have seen that side of them and you think it's not fair."

We look up when we hear horses riding up. It's Brian and Adam. "Oh great! What do you think they want?" I ask Ford.

"I'm guessing they want to talk to you," Ford says.

I dig my heels into Lucy. "Well I don't want to talk to them!" I yell as I ride off really fast.

"Heidi! Wait!" Ford yells and I hear him chasing me. I take Lucy up out of the river bed and run her up to the pasture. Ford catches up and says, "wait! Let me talk to them!"

"No way! Why are they _both_ here?! I'm getting as far away from them as I can!"

I hear Brian and Adam whistling and yelling for me to stop, but I am not going to do that! "Come on Lucy! Go!" I dig my heels in her sides again, but I know their horses are faster. It's only a matter of time before they catch up. Sure enough I see Ford fall back and Adam and Brian ride up on either side of me.

"Stop!" They yell.

"No!"

"Stop that damn horse now!" Adam yells.

Yikes! He said damn. That means he's really mad. I definitely don't want to stop now. I don't really have a choice when Brian heads Lucy off though, and Adam comes up close. "You'd better stop that horse now!" He yells.

"No! You're too mad!"

Lucy slows down and that lets Adam get close enough to grab at Lucy's reigns. But I yank them out of his way and Lucy turns suddenly. I almost fall off, but now she's stopped and Brian grabs her reigns.

"Get off!" Brian yells.

"No!"

"Don't you dare tell him no!" Adam yells. "Get off that horse right now!" He jumps off his horse and starts walking fast over to mine.

"Wait!" Ford yells. He comes riding up and says, "Adam, can I talk to you first before you start yelling at her?" Adam looks at him and Ford says, "please? It's really important."

Adam walks over to him and Ford jumps off his horse to talk.

I glare at Brian and he glares back at me. "Why are you _both_ out here to get me?"

"I'm here to take Lucy back so Caleb can ride her!" He yells.

"No!" I cry. "You can't do that! I don't want him to ride her! She's mine!"

"What's with you!" He yells back.

All I an do is cry now. Adam and Ford are done talking now and Adam walks up to me and Lucy. He looks up and calmly says, "get off Lucy."

I shake my head no and when he tries to pull me off I fight him. He's way stronger than me so it's not that hard for him to get me off but he's squeezing me too tight.

"Ow! You're hurting me!" I yell.

"Then stop trying to get away!" He yells back.

Brian starts to lead Lucy away and I try to get away but I can't. "No!" I scream. "You can't take her back." The squeezing hurts more now and I can't move. I watch Ford go back with Brian and I yell, "Ford wait!" I yell. "Don't leave me here with him!"

Ford looks back and yells, "it's ok Heidi, he understands."

I stare at them as they ride off. What does he mean by that? I try to get free when I feel Adam let up a little on the squeezing but as soon as I start moving he squeezes really hard and says, "no! Don't fight me!"

"But it hurts!"

"Then stop trying to get away!"

I'm exhausted now so I stop fighting and go limp and Adam lets up. He starts to turn me around so I can face him and I wrap my arms around his neck and cry on his shoulder. He stands up with me and doesn't say anything. He just lets me cry and he rubs my back.

"I don't want that boy to ride Lucy!" I cry.

"I know." He says and he's quiet for a little bit before he says, "I also know that's not like you. You've always wanted to share Lucy with people."

"I don't want to share her with _him_!" I yell.

"I know." He's quiet again while he carries me back to the river. He walks down to it and sits down on a big rock with me. "I talked to Ford," he says. He moves me off his lap so I can sit next to him.

"You mean _Ford_ talked to _you_," I say as I pick up a rock and throw it into the river.

"Ok, so he talked to me about how you were feeling. He also told me about how the boys were mean to the animals."

I look up at him. "He did?"

"Yes. I still don't like what you did with your BB gun, and you're not getting it back, but I can understand why you did that a little better."

"I know I shouldn't have done it. I _wish_ I hadn't done it!" I say as I throw another rock in.

"Good. Ford also said you might be a little jealous."

I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. I just feel mad at Josh and Caleb. Everyone was talking to them at dinner and then Hannah didn't make 'me' anything for dessert. I just started getting madder!"

"Did you drop your glass on purpose?" He asks.

I don't answer. Instead I pick up another rock and throw it in the river. Then I find another rock and decide to build a rock pyramid so I pick up more rocks. I'm glad there's lots where were sitting.

"Heidi?" He asks. "Heidi, are you listening to me?"

"Yes."

"Was dropping your glass an accident or did you do it on purpose?"

I keep building my pyramid until he puts his hand on top of mine to stop me.

"Yes."

"Yes what? Yes it was an accident or yes it was on purpose?"

"Yes it was on purpose." I look up at him and my eyes start to water. He puts his arm around me and hugs me close to him.

"Let me guess, you were feeling upset that everyone was paying attention to the boys and not you?"

I shrug my shoulders and say, "everyone was so nice to them! They were so mean to our animals!"

He lets go of my hand so I can work on my pyramid again. "Next time can you tell me or Brian or Crane or, heck, any of your brothers, what's going on?"

"I got sent to my room. How was I supposed to tell you? Yell as loud as I can?"

He laughs a little at that. "I don't know. I heard when Brian sent you to your room not too long ago, you wrote you were sorry on a piece of paper and made it into a paper airplane. You threw it downstairs and I hear you have pretty good aim."

I look up at him and say, "pretty good?! I have excellent aim! I hit my target every time!" He smiles down at me and then I ask, "so are you saying I should've written how mean the boys were and flew the paper downstairs?" I glare at him. "Because I don't think you would've liked that!"

He laughs and says, "you're probably right." He puts a rock on my pyramid.

"Hey, maybe we can build a pyramid that's as tall as me. Or you!" I yell as I jump up.

He laughs and says, "I think it's time to go back home. It's going to get dark soon." I kick my pyramid so it falls and Adam says, "Heidi, will you tell someone when you start to feel mad at the boys?"

I shrug my shoulders.

"I think it might help," he says when I look up at him. "The other thing to think about is these boys are going to be here all weekend, and you can either get along with them and try to have a fun weekend, or you can be mad at them and have a bad weekend. The choice is yours."

"But they're not nice all the time!"

"Heidi? Neither are you." He stands me up so I'm standing in front of him and he holds my hands while I look at him. "I bet if you're nicer, they'll be nicer too."

"I don't think so," I tell him.

"Well, will you try to be nicer? It would really help out a lot if you were."

"I'll try."

"Good!" He stands up and picks me up. He carries me to his horse and helps me get up on it. Then he gets on and we ride back to the house.

* * *

When we get back to the barn I see Evan, Guthrie, and Ford standing around Diablo and it looks like they're whispering. They keep looking at Brian who's sitting on a bale of hay talking to the boys. He looks mad. I wonder what happened. Then I see Lucy. Her side is bleeding a little from a scratch that's about a foot long.

"Adam, look at Lucy!" I cry. He rides up to Lucy and we get off Adam's horse to take a closer look. Sure enough, there's a long scratch on her and its bleeding! Evan runs up to us.

"What happened?!" I cry.

Evan looks at Adam and says, "they poked her with a stick."

"What!" I yell. "Which one did it?!" I start to storm off towards them.

"Calm down Heidi," Adam says. "Brian's talking to them. He'll straighten it out."

"I'm gonna poke _them_ with a stick!" I yell and I start to run off, but Adam holds me back. "Let me go! That's not a poke either! That's a scratch! A big scratch!"

"Heidi calm down. Help Evan take care of Lucy and I'll go talk to Brian and the boys. Let us take care of this." Then he picks me up so we can see eye to eye and says, "if you push or hit either one of those boys I'm going to be VERY disappointed in you. Do you understand me?"

I glare at him.

"Do you?" I don't want to answer that question and he knows it so he says, "if you don't answer me you're going to go to bed now and remember, it's a Friday night."

I keep glaring at him. "Fine! I understand you, BUT I'm not happy about it!" Hannah said we could have popcorn and soda while we watch the Dukes of Hazard tonight and I don't want to miss out on that.

"Ok. Help Evan," Adam says.

I watch him walk over to Brian and the boys. Ford and Guthrie come over to me.

"Heidi, those kids are so mean!" Guthrie whispers. "I can't believe they hurt Lucy like that!"

"I'd like to hurt them!" I whisper back.

"Don't do that Heidi," Ford says.

"I know, I won't. But I still want to!" I yell that last part really loud so everyone can hear me. Adam looks over at me and points his finger at me while shaking his head so I glare at him. Guthrie pulls me away with him over to the fence. "What?!" I yell at him.

"Sh!" He says. "Be quiet and listen." I look at him and he continues. "These boys are so mean to our animals, I say we get them back. Evan and Ford said they'd help us."

"How? What are we gonna do? I told Adam I wouldn't push or hit them, so we can't do that."

"No, we're not gonna do that!" Guthrie looks around to make sure no one is listening. "We're gonna scare them! Tonight! At bedtime!"

"What?! Are you sure that's a good idea? I don't want to be scared too." I hate being scared.

"No, you won't be scared because you'll know it's just us. And you're gonna help us," he says. "Come with me and I'll tell you the plan."

I follow him to the house but I don't know about this. I'm already feeling scared.


	3. Chapter 3

"Guthrie I don't think I like this plan. Besides, how is scaring them gonna make them stop hurting our animals? We should _hurt_ them so they know what it feels like!" I tell him.

"We can't, so scaring them is the next best thing," he says.

"But I don't want to help. I'm scared just thinking about it."

"Good, then just think how scared they'll be. Come on, you have to help. Remember what they did to Lucy," he reminds me.

I think about the scratch they gave Lucy. It must have hurt her. Evan and Ford are cleaning her up and I can hear Adam and Brian talking in their serious voices to the boys about not hurting our animals anymore. They look like they're about to cry. I hope they're listening.

When everyone is ready to go back to the house, we all walk together. Everyone's quiet. When we get inside, Hannah is talking on the phone. She says, "oh good, the boys are inside now." Then she says to Josh and Caleb, "it's your mom." She holds out the phone for Caleb to take. "Mommy!" He says.

I sit down on the steps and think about that. I don't think I've ever said mommy before. I was just a baby when my parents died. Crane comes over and sits down next to me.

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"Those mean boys made Lucy bleed! They scratched her with a stick!"

Crane puts his arm around me and hugs me. "I'm sorry. That must've made you mad."

"And sad. I bet it hurt her," I tell him.

"You're probably right."

We sit quietly for a minute and then I ask, "Crane, did I ever call anyone mommy before?"

He looks down at me and his face looks kind of funny. "I don't think so. Why?"

"I was just curious."

"There were ladies that would come watch you and Guthrie during the day while we were all at school and Adam and Brian were working on the ranch."

"I know. The ladies from church, right?" I ask.

"Yes. I'm pretty sure you didn't call any of them mommy."

"Did I ever call Adam daddy? Or Brian?"

"I don't think so. I don't think they would've let you call them that when you were little. Mom and Dad were still very much in their mind when you were one and two. They were only eighteen and seventeen when they died. When you were learning how to talk I think Adam was nineteen or twenty and I'm sure he didn't want to be called dad then."

"So I always just called him Adam?"

"No," Crane says, and then he laughs. "I think you called Adam, Dadum."

I smile. "That's kind of close to Dad."

"I guess so. Let's see, Adam was Dadum, Brian was Rye Rye, and you called me Rain."

I laugh. "What did I call Daniel?"

"Hmm. Let me think." I wait, but he can't remember. "Hey Daniel? What did Heidi used to call you when she was little?"

Daniel looks up from his guitar. He's sitting on the couch working on a new song. "She called me Dadel."

"Oh yeah! Dadel."

"What about Evan, Ford and Guthrie?" I ask.

"Evan was just Ev, Ford was Fode and Guthrie was Ree."

Now that Crane says all the names, I remember being told them before. I stand up and sit on Crane's lap while I watch Josh say goodbye to his Mom. He looks a little sad. He must miss her. When he hangs up the phone Hannah says, "the Dukes of Hazard will be on soon. Why don't you guys get ready for bed while I make the popcorn."

That cheers Josh up.

"What's the Dukes of Hazard?" Caleb asks.

"You don't know what the Dukes of Hazard is?" Guthrie asks. "It's only the _best_ show on television! You're gonna love it!" Then he tells them about it and the boys get excited.

"Crane, are you gonna watch with us?" I ask him.

"No, I'm going into town with Daniel and Brian."

"Oh right, it's Friday night. You should stay home and watch TV with us sometime. Like tonight!" I say.

"You've got a full house tonight," he says. "I'll take a rain check."

I get up off his lap and he stands up so we can move out of the way for Guthrie, Josh and Caleb to go upstairs to get ready for bed. I follow them up.

* * *

When I'm ready for bed I open my bedroom door. I'm wearing the horse pajamas Hannah made for me. They're nice and soft and warm. The bottoms have little horses all over them and the top has a horse patch on it. Josh is walking by my room holding something.

"What's that?" I ask, pointing to his hand.

He holds it up for me to see. "It's my teddy bear. I sleep with it every night."

"Why?" I ask.

"I don't know, I just do. I think it helps me go to sleep. I also have to have a light on when I go to sleep because I'm afraid of the dark."

"Me too!" I tell him.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I have to have my little pink lamp on."

We walk downstairs together. It smells good! I love the smell of popcorn. Adam is setting up the room for us to watch TV. He's moved the coffee table all the way over to the other couch so there's a big space in the middle of the room. Hannah is putting blankets and sleeping bags down on the floor because me and the boys are all gonna sleep down here together.

Now Adam's getting the TV. We keep it on the floor over in a corner of the living room because we don't watch it a lot. Our TV is old. It's black and white and the picture isn't that clear because the antennae doesn't work that great out here on the ranch. But it's better than nothing. Evan and Ford sit down on the couch while Adam sets the TV on top of the coffee table. He gets the long extension cord out and plugs it in.

"How come you two didn't go into town tonight with the rest of them?" He asks Evan and Ford.

They give him a little smile and Ford says, "no reason." Then he winks at me. I don't think Adam saw the wink because he's trying to get the channel to stop being blurry. "Besides, you know Heidi always likes everyone to watch TV with her."

"Adam, are you gonna watch the show?" I ask.

"I don't think so. It's kind of crowded down here."

"Pleeeeeeease?" I ask giving him my biggest smile.

"I guess I could watch it." Then he yells into the kitchen, "Hannah, you'd better make more popcorn! It looks like we're going to have a full house!"

"Yeah!" I jump up and down.

Hannah starts to bring sodas out. I'm surprised she's letting us have them this late at night. She says sodas are just a bunch of sugar and they make kids hyper, so we only get to have them at night on special occasions. I guess since we have guests, this is one of those nights.

"Come help me everyone," she says.

We all get up and go into the kitchen to help bring stuff out. The show is about to start by the time we get everything out to the living room and we're all settled.

"Wait!" Guthrie yells. "The lights!" Guthrie likes the lights off when we watch TV, so he gets up and turns them all off. When he sits down on his sleeping bag the show starts and we all start singing the theme song. That's one of my favorite things about watching the show.

When Daisy Duke comes on the TV, Evan and Ford start whistling a little and Evan says, "how'd you like her for a girlfriend, Ford?" They both laugh. Ford has a girlfriend named Cleo and they like each other a lot.

Hannah says, "boys, remember to use your good manners. There are ladies present."

They both say they're sorry and then we're all quiet until the commercials come on. Guthrie asks the boys if they like the show and they say they do. I'm done with my popcorn and soda so I get up and try to squeeze in between Adam and Hannah on the couch, but with four big people already sitting on it there's no room. I climb onto Adam's lap instead. This is how I like to watch TV, with everyone around watching it together.

* * *

When the show is over Hannah tells us to brush our teeth. I brush mine first and when I'm done and I'm back downstairs, Adam asks Evan and Ford what they're going to do quietly so we can go to sleep.

Ford laughs and says, "you know they're not going to go to sleep for a few hours."

"Why don't the four of us play rummy in the kitchen?" Hannah suggests.

They all agree and when Guthrie and the boys are done brushing their teeth we all settle down in our sleeping bags. Josh is on one end, then Caleb, then me and then Guthrie.

"My mom reads me a story when she tucks me in," Josh says.

Hannah has two books in her hands to read and she sits down on my sleeping bag and Josh, Caleb and I sit up to listen and to look at the pictures. Guthrie doesn't because he thinks he's too old to be read to, but I know he's listening because he laughs at the funny parts with us.

When Hannah's done reading she gives me a kiss goodnight and asks Caleb and Josh if they want one too. Josh does so she kisses him, but I think Caleb is copying Guthrie because he looks at Guthrie when he says no to Hannah.

"Goodnight," she says. "Go to sleep now."

"My mom always sings me a song before she leaves," Josh says and Guthrie groans. Then I hear Caleb groan too and Josh says, "she sings to you too!" I laugh at that until Hannah gives me her look that says stop, so I smile instead.

"I can sing to you," she says.

"Hannah has a really pretty voice," I tell them.

She starts to sing a song and Josh interrupts her. "No, not that one, the other one."

"What's the name of the song?" Hannah asks.

"I don't know, she just sings it. You have to sing 'that' song or I can't go to sleep." I can hear Guthrie laugh a tiny bit.

"Caleb, do you know the name of the song?" Hannah asks.

"No."

"Tell me how it starts."

Josh starts to sing it and Hannah knows it so she sings it too. When she's finished she says goodnight again and gets up. She turns all the lights off except for one lamp on the end table and then she goes into the kitchen to play rummy. When she's gone, Guthrie sits up.

"What do you guys want to do now?" Guthrie asks.

We all sit up and Guthrie looks at me and I shake my head no. He glares at me and says, "_Heidi_, what do you want to do now?"

I know what I'm supposed to say, but I don't want to. Guthrie keeps glaring at me so I say quietly, "we could tell ghost stories."

"Yeah, let's do that!" Guthrie says.

"Ok," Caleb says.

"Are they going to be scary?" Josh asks. "I don't like scary stories."

I look at him and I say quietly, "I don't either." And I really mean it.

"But you're ten," Caleb says to me. "I'm eight and I'm not scared."

I glare at him. "You haven't heard the story yet!"

"Sh," Guthrie says. "We have lots of stories to tell. Our house is haunted!"

"It is?" Caleb asks.

Guthrie looks at me so I nod my head.

"I don't believe you," he says.

I shrug my shoulders and Guthrie says, "once you hear the stories you will. Even our barn is haunted!"

"What! How do you know that?" Caleb asks.

I look at Josh and he looks scared. "Guthrie, do we have to tell them the stories?" I plead to him with my eyes. He glares back.

"Yes, we have to tell them!" He leans over to me and whispers, "what are you doing? Remember the plan?"

I sigh and nod my head. Then I whisper, "_you_ tell them the stories."

Guthrie tells the story about the family that lived in our house before us. It's a made up story but I still think it's real. Adam says my imagination thought up the story, but I don't. I think it's true. Guthrie tells them the family was murdered by an ax murderer and he buried their bodies in our backyard.

I look at Caleb and Josh and they're both staring at Guthrie and their eyes look big. Then Guthrie tells them that me and Guthrie dug for their graves and we found a little girl's arm bone.

The boys gasp. "You did?" Josh asks.

I nod my head even though my brothers said it was a deer bone, and _not_ a little girl's bone.

"Her name was Molly, and she haunts our house because we didn't put her arm bone back in her grave. She wants it back so her ghost comes to us at night and asks for it back."

"Well why didn't you give it back?" Josh asks and he sounds scared.

"We did," I tell him. "We just didn't bury it deep enough."

"Can we go do that now?" He asks.

"No!" I yell.

"Heidi! Be quiet!" Guthrie yells.

Hannah walks in and says, "I'm hearing a lot of talking. You guys need to go to sleep"

"Ok," we all say and we lay back down.

We're quiet for a while and we listen to the Rummy game going on in the kitchen. They're not that loud, but loud enough that they can't hear us if we talk quietly. The more I lay here quietly, the more my brain starts thinking about things.

"Molly is probably upstairs at the end of the hallway," I say. "She has a knife and she's waiting for us to go to sleep."

I hear Guthrie whisper, "good Heidi, keep talking like that."

He thinks I'm doing this to scare the boys, but I'm not. I'm saying this because I'm scared and my brain is making me think about her for real. "I bet there's also an ax murderer outside waiting for us to go to sleep so he can come in here and kill us!"

Guthrie laughs a little and I look upstairs to the end of the walkway up there. I think I see something so I jump up.

"What are you doing?" Guthrie asks.

"Getting a drink of water." I say as I leave and walk into the kitchen.

"What are you doing up?" Hannah asks.

"Getting a drink of water." I slowly walk over to the cabinet and get a glass out. As I'm standing at the sink filling my glass with water I glance out the window. I remember this is where I saw the ghost of Molly staring at me from outside. I almost drop my glass, but I don't. I walk over to the table and watch them play Rummy, but my mind keeps thinking about Molly.

"You've been holding that glass of water for a long time," Hannah says. "I thought you were thirsty."

I take a sip and then walk over to Adam. I stand as close to him as I can and look at him.

"What?" He asks.

I motion for him that I want to whisper something in his ear so he leans his head down. "I'm scared," I whisper.

"Of what?" He says out loud.

"Of Molly!" I whisper in his ear.

He looks at me and sighs. "Heidi, we've talked about this before. Molly's not real. Ok?"

"Yes she is! I'm scared of her!"

"No she's not. Your imagination is running wild. Stop thinking about her and think about something else," he says.

"You mean like the ax murderer that's outside?"

Ford and Evan laugh until Hannah tells them to stop.

"No! I mean like something happy," he says.

"I can't! I'm scared! He's waiting outside for us to go to sleep so he can chop us up into little pieces!"

Hannah gets up and walks over to me. "Come on, let me put you back to bed."

"No! I want Adam!" That's who I want when I'm scared. I look up at Adam. "What if he kills Brian, Daniel and Crane when they come home? What if he already did and we don't know it yet?! What if..,"

"Stop!" Adam says and he picks me up and puts me on his lap. "That's not going to happen!"

"Yeah Heidi," Evan says. "There's nothing to be afraid of." Evan looks at Ford and smiles, but Ford doesn't smile back, instead he looks at me and he looks a little sad. Hannah sits back down and I watch them play.

"Are you gonna check?" I ask Adam.

"Check what?"

"Check to see if they're out there."

"If he does that, then he'll get chopped up too!" Evan says and he laughs.

"Evan!" Adam yells.

"Ok, sorry."

"Heidi, it's bedtime. You need to go back to bed," Adam tells me.

"I can't! I'm too scared!" I look at Ford when I say that.

"Let me take her in there," Ford says.

"Me too," Evan says as they both get up.

"No. I want Adam to."

"Come on Heidi," Evan says.

Adam starts to get up and Evan starts to look mad so I say, "ok, I'll go with Evan and Ford."

"Are you sure?" Adam asks. He looks at me and says, "'cause you sure don't look sure."

"I'm sure," I say quietly. I get off his lap and slowly walk over to Evan and Ford.

Evan smiles and picks me up. He carries me into the living room and stops just outside the kitchen. "Come on Heidi," he whispers, "remember the plan. There's nothing to be scared of."

"But I _am_ scared," I tell him.

"Yeah Evan, she's really scared. Maybe we should call the plan off," Ford says.

"Think about Lucy, Heidi. Do you want them to get away with hurting her?" Evan asks.

I sigh and say, "no. I guess not. Ok, I'll do the plan, but I'm really scared."

"Just remember, it's just us out there, ok?" Evan says.

"Ok." Evan puts me down and I walk over to my sleeping bag and crawl in. Evan and Ford go back to their game. "What have you guys been talking about?" I ask Guthrie.

"I've just been telling them about the Ouija board we played with. You know, how we were able to talk to Molly." Guthrie says and he winks at me.

"Did you really talk to her?" Josh asks. He still looks scared.

"Yes," I say quietly, even though I know Evan was just tricking us into thinking we were talking to Molly.

"Wow!" Caleb says. "That's cool!"

"Wait until you hear about the barn!" Guthrie says. "Our barn is haunted too." Both boys stare at Guthrie waiting to hear the story. Guthrie looks around to make sure no one's listening and starts. "Adam says there was a bad rancher that came to work on our ranch. He worked for Molly's dad. Only Molly's dad didn't know the rancher was bad so he hired him to take care of the animals in the barn."

"What'd he do that was so bad?" Josh asks. He looks really interested in the story.

"He hurt the animals. He was mean to them. He hit them and kicked them and called them names. Sometimes he even whipped them!"

I look at Guthrie and I'm shocked. I know he's telling a story, but I'm starting to believe it. "Why'd he whip them?" I ask.

Guthrie looks at me kind of funny and says, "because he was a bad man. _Remember_? You know the story."

"Oh, right," I say.

"What happened to him?" Caleb asks.

"When Molly's dad found out what was happening to his animals he fired the bad rancher. But, the bad man was mad and he picked up an ax and chopped off the Dad's arm."

"Eew!" I say.

Guthrie glares at me. "When Molly's dad realized the bad man was going to kill him, he told the bad rancher he would come back as a ghost and kill him!"

"But this isn't the bad rancher's house," Caleb says. "How's he gonna come back to kill him?"

He's got a point.

"The Bad Rancher chopped Molly's dad up and then..,"

Caleb interrupts him. "I thought an ax murderer chopped him up inside the house."

I think Caleb is starting to suspect something. Josh isn't. He still looks scared.

"I'm getting to that," Guthrie says. "The dad was really killed in the barn, but the ax murderer was in the barn watching, and he killed the bad rancher _before_ he went into the house and chopped up the rest of Molly's family. Adam says Molly's dad haunts the barn. My brothers say they can hear him sometimes talking to our animals. He's asking them if we're hurting them."

"No he's not!" Caleb says.

"Yes, he does! I've even heard him. So has Heidi. Right Heidi?"

Everyone looks at me. I don't like this plan at all! But when Guthrie glares at me I say, "yes, I've heard him."

"They say, he's watching over the animals to make sure no one hurts them. He even puts his ghost body inside the animal's body to make them talk," Guthrie says.

"I don't believe you!" Caleb says. "Ghosts can't do that!"

"Well, _this_ ghost can. We'll prove it to you."

"How?"

Oh no! Hear comes the part I hate about this plan!

"We'll sneak out to the barn when everyone's asleep and you'll hear them talk for yourself."

"We're gonna go out to the barn?" Josh asks. "At night? When it's dark?"

"We'll bring a flashlight," Guthrie tells him.

"Just one?" I ask.

Guthrie glares at me, "we can bring two if you want."

"You're just making all this up," Caleb insists.

"Then come out to the barn if you don't believe me, and see for yourself," Guthrie says.

"I'll come," Caleb says. "Just so I can prove you wrong!"

"Im not going!" Josh says.

"Aw come on Josh," Guthrie says. "Heidi's going."

Josh looks at me and I look at Guthrie. I don't really like Guthrie right now, and I really don't like this plan, but I nod my head.

"Don't be a scaredy cat!" Caleb tells his brother.

"I'm not a scaredy cat!"

"Prove it!" Caleb says.

"Yeah, prove it!" Guthrie says.

"Ok, I will!" Josh says.

"Ok, then it's settled. As soon as everyone's in bed, we'll sneak out to the barn," Guthrie tells everyone.

"What do we do while we wait?" Josh asks.

"I have a ghost story I can tell," Caleb says.

He starts telling his story but I don't listen because my brain is thinking about the plan. I don't like it, but I don't want to mess it up. I think about Lucy, and I feel mad. I guess these guys deserve what we're going to do to them. I just hope Evan and Ford aren't _too_ scary. Maybe we'll all fall asleep before Adam and Hannah go to bed. Something tells me Guthrie will wake us up if that happens.

I stop thinking and try to listen to Caleb's story. My stomach starts to hurt. I hope nothing goes wrong with our plan.


	4. Chapter 4

"Guthrie, I don't want to do this!" I whisper to him.

"Heidi, you _have_ to!" He whispers. "We're doing this for Lucy, _remember_?"

"I wish you would stop saying that!"

"Come on, I've helped you with all your _plans_, you can at least help with this one. And you've had some really _dumb_ plans!"

He's right I have. But when Guthrie and I come up with a plan it _never_ works. Maybe this one will since Evan and Ford are helping. "Guthrie I'm scared!"

"There's nothing to be scared about! How many times do I have to tell you that!"

Caleb says, "_you're_ scared Heidi?"

"No! I'm not scared!"

"You sure _look_ scared!"

"Alright guys, Adam and Hannah went to bed so now is our chance to sneak out," Guthrie says. We pretended to be asleep when they went upstairs.

"I didn't see Evan and Ford go upstairs," Caleb says.

He's right. They didn't go upstairs. How's Guthrie gonna explain that?

"They were going into town after they played rummy with Adam and Hannah. They must've gone out the back door. You can go look in the kitchen if you don't believe me."

Caleb gets up to go look. "The lights are off."

"Then that means there's no one in there," Guthrie tells him. "Come on. We're gonna sneak out the back door."

We all stand up and Guthrie gets his flashlight. Mine is upstairs in my room and I'm too scared to go up there and get it. So we're going outside with one flashlight. Maybe there's a full moon and we'll have good night vision. It's always easier to see at night without a flashlight when you have good night vision. We sneak into the kitchen and Guthrie opens the back door quietly. My heart is pounding fast. I've been outside at night with Guthrie before, and sometimes I get scared. Tonight I'm scared before we even walk out the door.

I'm the last one to go out so I can make sure the door shuts quietly. Once I'm outside I look around. If there _is_ a full moon we can't see it because the whole sky is clouds. Just clouds. No moon, no stars, no nothing! Darn, that makes it even more scary.

We walk quietly across the yard and we have to walk slowly because we need to use the flashlight to watch where we step. Josh grabs my hand and whispers, "are you scared, Heidi?"

I look down at him and I feel bad when I say no. He grabs my hand tighter. He's scared and I am too. All of a sudden he stops walking and yells, "I'm scared! I don't want to go!"

"Sh!" Guthrie says. "We're almost there. Just be quiet. As soon as we hear the ghost talking we'll go back to the house."

"Yeah," Caleb says, "we're almost there. Don't be chicken!"

I feel sorry for Josh. I wish I could take him back to the house but I'm too scared to. When I look behind me all I see is darkness. Not complete darkness, but enough that I'd want a flashlight, and we only have one.

The closer we get to the barn, the slower we walk.

"Do we have to go _inside_ the barn, or can we just listen outside by the door?" Josh asks.

"Yeah, can we just wait outside the door?" I ask.

"No _Heidi_!" Guthrie says. If I could see his eyes right now I'd bet they'd be glaring at me.

When we're really close to the door Josh stops walking again and starts to cry. "I want to go back!"

"Sh!" Guthrie says, and he covers Josh's mouth with his hand.

Now I feel really bad for Josh and I don't know what to do. I want to grab his arm and run away from the barn as fast as I can. "Guthrie I'm scared too!"

"Chicken!" Caleb says.

"I don't care if you call me that! I'm scared and so is your little brother! Give me the flashlight! We're going back!"

"No!" Guthrie says and he pulls me away from the boys. "Please don't mess this up Heidi. Please? I'm really mad at how they've been treating our animals. I know you're scared, but remember, it's just Evan and Ford in there. Come on, I need you to help me. If you run, they're both gonna run."

I'm quiet while I think about all that. Finally I say ok and we walk back to the boys.

"I don't hear any voices," Caleb says.

"We're not inside yet," Guthrie says and he walks up to the big door and opens it a little. Just enough for us to squeeze through. Caleb follows and I hold Josh's hand as we slowly squeeze our way in.

"It's dark in here!" Josh cries.

"Turn the light on!" I yell.

"No, we have the flashlight! Now just stand here and listen. The sooner we hear the ghost, the sooner we can go back to the house." Guthrie reminds us.

I whisper to Josh, "be quiet. I know you're scared, I am too, but if we're quiet we can get out of here quicker."

He cries quieter and we all stand near the door listening. We hear a jingling sound. It sounds like a chain being shaken gently.

"Listen!" Guthrie whispers.

"What's that noise?" Caleb asks. "That doesn't sound like a voice. I'm getting scared!"

We listen and I can hear the chain noise again. Then we hear creaking noises. It sounds like somebody's walking up in the loft.

"Who's doing that?" Josh asks.

"It's the ghost," Guthrie says.

I know it's just Ford and Evan making these noises, but it's still scary. And how come the footsteps sound like they're up in the loft, but the chain sounds like it's coming from the back of the barn? Maybe there really is a ghost in here!

"Luuuuuucy." A voice says quietly and it sounds spooky.

"What was that?!" Caleb asks.

"Sh!" Guthrie says. "Listen!"

"Luuuuuuucy." The voice says again only a little louder this time.

"What's he saying?" Caleb asks.

"I don't know, listen," Guthrie says.

"Luuuuuucy."

"He's saying Lucy!" Caleb yells.

"Heidi, I think the ghost is trying to talk to Lucy!" Guthrie yells.

I am so scared! I think Josh is too scared to cry anymore. I know I am. He's also squeezing my hand really tight, but I don't feel it so much anymore because all I can think about is how scared I am and how I just want to get out of here.

"Luuuuuuucy, whaaaat haaaaapeeeened to your siiiiiiide?"

"What's he saying?" Caleb asks.

"He said, 'Lucy, what happened to your side.' He must be talking about the scratch on her side!" Guthrie says.

All of a sudden a small little girl voice says quietly, "some boys scratched me with a stick."

Lucy's talking! "I want to go!" I yell.

"Me too!" Josh yells.

"Wait!" Guthrie yells. "Listen."

We listen and the ghost voice says, "Luuuuuucy, who did this to you?"

The little girl voice says quietly, "some mean little boys."

Now Caleb says, "the ghost isn't going to kill us, is he?"

"I don't know. Listen," Guthrie says. I think he's laughing, but I don't think this is funny.

"Are the mean boys in the barn right now?" The ghost says.

"Yeeeeees." Lucy says.

"He's gonna kill us!" Caleb yells and me and Josh start to cry

"Wait, just listen a little while longer and then we'll go," Guthrie says to us.

There's a loud voice that says, "ARE...THEY...OVER...HERE?" And as soon as he says the word 'here', a flashlight turns on and I see a man dressed in black with a black face and he's holding an axe high up in the air!

I scream, Josh screams and Caleb screams and then the flashlight turns off.

"Run!" I yell and the three of us run to the door but we can't get it open fast enough. We yell and cry trying to get the door open and in back of us I hear loud footsteps. "Go! Go! Go!" I yell and we shove the door open.

As soon as we're out we run. We're all crying and running towards the house. It's hard to see and Josh falls down. I hear footsteps running after me and I scream. We're all screaming as loud as we can, but I hear someone yelling, "wait! Stop running!" It sounds like Guthrie but since I'm not sure I keep running and screaming.

We're at the white picket fence that goes around the house and the porch light turns on. Adam opens the door and he and Hannah run out to the porch.

"Run!" I scream. I run up the porch steps and scream, "go inside! Hurry! We have to go inside and shut the door!" When I get close to Adam he grabs me and I try to get away. "Let me go! We have to go inside! Hurry! He's coming!"

"Who's coming?! Heidi stop! Who's coming?!"

I don't have time to answer. The boys are on the porch now and they're crying and they push through Adam and Hannah and run inside. I fight to get free and I can't hear anything when I'm trying to do that. All I can think about is getting inside and shutting that door! I don't even remember who's holding me back now. I'm just trying to break free, but all of a sudden I'm being picked up and carried inside and the door slams shut.

I look around and see Hannah hugging the boys on the couch. They're still crying. Adam's holding me and Guthrie is standing by the front door. He looks scared. Not scared scared, but scared he's gonna get in trouble scared.

"Adam! Lucy talks! Lucy talks! And there's a man with an axe! He was going to kill us!" I yell while I cry.

"Sh. Calm down Heidi. You're safe. I've got you," he says softly.

"No! In the barn! In the barn!"

Caleb yells, "there's an axe murderer in the barn!"

"And the animals talk! They talk!" Josh yells.

Adam turns around and looks at Guthrie. "Guthrie?" He says. "What happened?"

Guthrie doesn't say anything.

"I told you!" I yell. "The barn! Lucy talks! There's an axe!" Then my mind thinks something horrible! "The axe man killed Evan and Ford! He killed them!" I cry.

"What?!" Adam says. "Guthrie you'd better start talking. It looks like you're the only one not scared." But Guthrie's not talking.

I yell again. "They're dead! He killed them! Evan and Ford are dead!"

Adam walks over to the couch where Hannah and the boys are. He sits down and I hug him as tight as I can and lay my head on his shoulder. He hugs me back just as tight and I cry. "Calm down," he says quietly as he rubs my back. Hannah is saying the same thing to Josh and Caleb.

I start to calm down. "Adam, the axe murderer killed Evan and Ford!"

"Ok. I hear you," he says. "I hear you."

Josh says, "the animals talk in the barn! Lucy talks!"

"What did she say Josh?" Hannah asks.

"She said we hurt her!" He cries. "She said me and Caleb hurt her!"

"And now the axe man is going to kill us!" Caleb cries.

I can feel Adam tense up a little bit, but he still hugs me. I hear the front door open and I yell, "close the door! Close the door!"

Adam says quietly, "Heidi, it's Evan and Ford. Look."

"No! It's their ghosts! I'm not looking!"

"It's just us Heidi," Evan says.

Ford sits down next to Adam and says, "I'm not a ghost."

I can see him next to me but I don't believe him. "I saw the axe man! He was there!" I yell.

"It was just Evan," Ford says.

"Yeah, Heidi. It was just me dressed up," Evan says.

"I don't believe you!"

"Look at us!"

"No!"

Adam says, "why don't you two go away right now. In fact, why don't you go wait for me out in the barn."

"No!" I yell. "You can't send them out there! They'll get killed!"

"Do you see what you've done?!" Adam says. He doesn't yell because he's holding me, but I know he wants to. "You two have a lot of explaining to do." Ford gets up and I can hear the front door open and close. "Guthrie, do _you_ know what's going on?" Adam asks.

I don't hear him say anything.

"Guthrie, I'm asking you a question."

I still don't hear him answer.

"If you don't start talking I'm going to send you out to the barn too," Adam says.

"No, you can't do that!" I cry. "He'll get all chopped up."

"Sh. Guthrie? Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes," he says quietly. "We came up with a plan to scare Josh and Caleb."

"Who's _we_?" Adam asks.

"Me, Evan, Ford and...," then he stops talking.

"And Heidi?" Adam asks.

"Yes, well sort of. Me, Evan and Ford came up with the plan. Heidi was just supposed to help us. She didn't want to help, but we kind of made her. She kept saying she was scared, but we told her she had to do it because they hurt Lucy."

"Adam, Lucy knows how to talk," I tell him. I'm still hugging him with my head resting on his shoulders.

"Ok, we'll talk about that later," he says. Then he says to Guthrie, "do you see what you did? Are you looking at your sister and these two little boys?"

"Yes," he says quietly. "I'm sorry."

Hannah says, "Adam, why don't you talk to Guthrie tomorrow. We've got to get these kids to bed. It's past midnight now." I open my eyes and watch her get up and guide the boys over to the sleeping bags.

Adam starts to get up so I say, "no! Don't get up! Just stay here and hold me!"

"I have to go talk to Evan and Ford, Heidi. They're waiting for me out in the barn."

"No! Don't leave me!"

"Sh. Ok, I'll stay." He rubs my back again and I close my eyes. I'm tired. Probably from all the crying. My cheeks are wet from my tears and my face is all sweaty.

"I want my mommy!" Josh cries.

"I want my dad!" Caleb cries.

"Sh, I know. I'm sorry they're not here," Hannah says. I bet if I looked over to where she was, I'd see her sitting on the floor hugging the boys close to her. I hear her start to sing. When Hannah or my brothers sing to me, it helps calm me down. I listen to Hannah's voice while Adam hugs me and rubs my back. I start to feel tired and I turn my head towards Adam's ear and whisper, "I'm glad I have my dad right here with me." I feel him hug me tighter as I drift off to sleep.

* * *

"Heidi, wake up." I'm so tired I don't want to wake up. I groan and roll over. "Wake up Heidi." I pull my blanket over my head but someone keeps pushing on me. "Wake up Heidi."

"Stop it!" I shout. Why won't they stop pushing me!

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Leave me alone!" I throw back my blanket and open my eyes and scream! Lucy's face is right next to mine and her black eyes are staring at me while she pushes me with her nose and tells me to wake up!

Then I hear Adam and Hannah's voice calling my name. "Heidi wake up you're having a bad dream."

I open my eyes for real and see them looking at me. They're sitting on the floor next to me. Adam must have put me in my sleeping bag because that's where I am right now.

"How did Lucy learn how to talk?" I ask.

"What?" Hannah asks.

"Lucy. How come she talks now?" I ask.

"I think you were dreaming," Adam says.

"No, I heard her talk in the barn. She talks."

"That was just Evan and Ford Heidi. You know animals don't talk," Adam says.

"'She' does."

"Ok, we'll talk about it in the morning. You have to go back to sleep now."

"Why? What time is it?"

"Four o'clock."

I look around and Guthrie, Caleb and Josh are all asleep. "Have you been down here with us this whole time?"

"Yes," Hannah says. "It took a while for Caleb and Josh to go to sleep. They finally calmed down when I laid down with them."

I look up at Adam. "Did you talk to Evan and Ford?" I sit up really fast and yell, "they're not still out in the barn are they?!"

"Sh! Be quiet! You'll wake everybody up. No, they're not out in the barn, they're upstairs sleeping. Lay down and go to sleep," Adam says.

"I can't. I'm too scared."

Adam gets up and moves his sleeping bag closer to the couch. I look at Hannah and she has a sleeping bag too. "You guys are sleeping down here? Why?"

"Because three little kids keep waking up with bad dreams," Adam says as he gets in his sleeping bag and leans his back against the couch. "Get over here."

I scoot in my sleeping bag until I'm sitting next to him and he puts his arm around me and hugs me close to him.

"Now close your eyes and go to sleep so I can go to sleep."

"I can't. Adam, do you think Lucy talks all the time, or just at night?"

"I don't think Lucy talks at all."

"She does."

"I'm not going to argue with you. Stop talking and go to sleep."

"Do you think the axe murderer is still outside?"

"No."

"Is he in the barn?" I ask.

"No."

"Then where is he?" I sit up. "Is he in the house?!" I yell.

"Sh!" Adam reaches with his arm that's around me and covers my mouth with his hand. "Stop talking or I'm gonna strangle you! You'll wake everybody up!"

I laugh a little and move his hand out of the way. "You can't do that. You'd get arrested."

"Go to sleep."

"Will you sing me a song?"

"Ok." He sings a lullaby quietly. It's a song my mom sang to my brothers when they were little. My brothers sing to me a lot. They sing all the songs my mom and dad sang to them when they were little so I'll learn them. Adam's voice is quiet so I listen carefully and fall asleep.

* * *

I wake up to the smell of bacon. When I open my eyes I see Guthrie asleep next to me and when I sit up I see that Caleb and Josh are asleep too. When I look at the clock and see it's nine o'clock I get up and walk into the kitchen.

No one's in here but there's a plate of bacon on the table so I take a piece. I wonder where everyone is. If no one's down here, I wonder if someone's upstairs. I take another piece of bacon and go see.

When I look in Adam and Hannah's room I find Adam asleep on top of his bed. He's dressed so he must've been up earlier. I walk over to the window and look outside.

Brian is on his horse way out in the pasture with some of the cows. The jeep is gone so someone must be in town. Then I look at the barn. It looks scary to me even though it's daytime. Lucy is outside the barn and she's eating some hay. My brain tells me she can't talk, but last night was so scary I'm not sure if she can or can't.

"You're up," Adam says. I turn around and he asks, "is anyone else up?"

"If you mean Guthrie and the boys, no." I walk over to his bed and he sits up and starts to put his socks on. I watch him and he stops for a second and looks at me.

"When you came into the kitchen to get a drink of water last night, were you scared because you knew what was going to happen?"

"Guthrie was telling ghost stories. He was telling the boys about Molly."

He finishes putting his socks on and then he looks at me again. "How come you didn't tell me?"

I stare at him before I say quietly, "Evan, Ford and Guthrie would be mad at me. They were already getting mad at me because I told them I didn't want to help with the plan anymore."

"How do you feel about it now?"

"I wish I would've told you."

"I wish you would've too. You and the boys were really scared last night. I don't like what you guys did to them. I'm disappointed in you."

"I'm sorry. I was really scared when we got to the barn. I wanted to go back to the house, but Guthrie wouldn't let me."

"I'm going to talk to him about that. I hope next time you'll tell me what's going on. I don't like you being scared like that."

"But then I'll be a tattletale," I tell him.

"Sometimes that's ok. I think your brothers really regret what they did. I can't believe they took it that far." He starts putting his shoes on.

"Where are you going?" I ask. "Where is everybody?"

"Daniel took Hannah to work, Brian and Crane are outside and the rest are still asleep."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to wake everyone up. It's almost nine-thirty."

"What are we doing today?" I ask.

"Evan and Ford are going to take you, Guthrie, Caleb and Josh fishing."

"I don't want to go with them. I don't think I like Evan, Ford and Guthrie right now. Can I stay with you?"

"Crane, Brian and I have to fix a fence," he says.

"You _always_ have to fix a fence!" I walk closer to him so I'm standing right in front of him. "'Please', can I go with you today? Please?" I lean against him.

"No, I really need to get stuff done today."

"I could help you," I tell him.

He looks real serious at me and says, "you know that never works."

"I promise I won't wander off this time or do something I'm not supposed to do."

"No."

"Please, can't we just try me helping out again?"

"No not today. I really need to get stuff done. You're going fishing today."

"I don't want to."

"Well you're gonna." He looks at me with his serious face.

I stare at him and I'm starting to get mad.

"Do you hear me? You're going fishing today." He takes my hands and stares into my eyes. "Understand?"

I sigh and think. Then I smile and say, "yes, I understand."

"What? Why are you smiling now?"

"No reason," I say while smiling bigger.

"You're going fishing," he says.

"I know."

"I feel like you're up to something, and I'm warning you, if you don't go fishing I'm going to be mad."

"Don't worry, I'm gonna go fishing."

He sighs and says, "ok." He still looks at me like he doesn't believe me. "Let's go wake everyone up."

"Ok!" I smile and skip out of his room. Adam didn't say _who_ I had to go fishing _with_.


	5. Chapter 5

Evan and Ford make us pancakes for breakfast to go along with the bacon someone made earlier. Adam is helping them a little bit and all of us are quiet. It feels kind of strange with no one talking. Our kitchen is always full of people laughing and talking. Guthrie, Josh, Caleb and I sit at the table waiting to eat and when Adam sets my orange juice on the table I pick it up and move all the way down to the other end of the table.

"What are you doing?" Guthrie asks.

I don't answer him. I just ignore him and glare over at Ford and Evan. When they bring the pancakes over and set them down they give me a funny look before sitting down in their spots. Adam sits down in the middle of the table because I took his spot.

"Before I go outside to work, there's some things we need to talk about," Adam says.

"I thought you had a fence to fix," I remind him while I glare at him.

He looks at me and glares right back. "I do," he says slowly. "I just want to get some things cleared up."

"_What_ things?" I ask while still glaring.

"Knock it off!" Adam yells to me and then he looks at Evan and Ford. "I think you two have something you want to say?"

Evan starts. He looks really sad when he looks at Josh and Caleb. "I'm sorry I scared you last night. There isn't an axe murderer or a ghost in the barn."

Ford adds, "the animals can't talk either." Then he looks at me. "I'm really sorry Heidi. I was the one who was pretending to be Lucy. She can't really talk."

He looks like he's sorry. So does Evan. Then Guthrie says to Josh and Caleb, "I'm sorry for scaring you too. Our house isn't really haunted...,"

"Yes it is!" I yell.

"Heidi," Adam says, "let Guthrie finish."

"But it is too haunted!"

"_No_ it's _not_," Adam says. "We've talked about this before. Now let Guthrie finish."

I glare at Adam and then down at Guthrie.

"Heidi, I'm sorry I made you go along with our plan. I'm sorry I got you scared too. Do you forgive me?"

"No! I'm never gonna forgive you! I'm never gonna forgive Ford or Evan either!"

Guthrie looks at me and he looks sad. I think he's going to cry. Then he looks at Adam.

"Guthrie, I haven't had a chance to talk to you about last night," Adam says. "But I'm going to tonight. You scared these kids a lot. Don't expect them to forgive you right away. This isn't something you can just say you're sorry for and expect it to go away." Everyone's quiet. "Now, you're all going fishing today and...,"

"Fishing!" Caleb shouts. "We've never been fishing before!" He's smiling really big and so is Josh.

"What!" I yell. "How come you've never gone fishing before? That's weird."

"Heidi, not everyone has had the same experiences as you. They moved here from the city remember?"

I'm not really sure what he means by that. How could they never have gone fishing before? I've been fishing since I was really little. I look down at Josh and Caleb and then a thought pops into my head and I start glaring at them. "Guess what?!" I yell. "When you go fishing you can poke the fish all you want to with a stick! You can throw things at it and..,"

"Heidi!" Adam yells. "That's enough!"

I stand up. "What?! They can! They want to be mean to animals, well guess what?! You can KILL these animals!" I fold my arms across my chest and glare down at them.

Josh and Caleb start crying and Adam looks at me and he looks mad. "Go in there," he points to the living room, "and wait for me on the couch." He doesn't yell that, but he's using his serious voice.

"Why?" I ask while glaring at him. I shouldn't have said that because Adam gets up really fast and before I can run he has me by my arm and is leading me to the couch.

"Sit down!" I do and he says, "I don't have time for this today! I don't care if you don't like any of those boys in there right now," he yells while pointing at the kitchen, "but this attitude is going to stop! Now! Do you understand me?!"

I think about that for a minute while I glare up at him and say, "I understand."

"Good! Now I'm going to go back in there and when I come back out here your bad attitude better be gone!" He goes back into the kitchen and I listen to him tell the boys Hannah made sandwiches for them and they need to be back in time for dinner. Then he starts to say other stuff but I stop listening.

I start thinking about going fishing. I don't want to be around any of those mean boys in the kitchen today. Adam said I have to go fishing but he didn't say I have to go with them. I could just go off by myself. I think more and then an idea pops into my head. I could scare _them_! I'll have to come up with a plan! When Adam comes back out here I'll be as sweet as I can be.

* * *

When we have everything ready to go we all pile into the truck. The lake we're going to is just down the road a little ways. Well, the lake isn't, the trailhead is. It's not a real trailhead is just a path that leads to the lake. We're going to the Johnson's lake. The Johnson's Ranch is across the road from ours. Mrs. Johnson is the only one that lives there now. She lets us go to her lake anytime we want to. She has a lot of property and the lake is far away from her house. It's far away from everywhere.

Guthrie, Josh, Caleb and I are sitting in the back of the truck. I love getting to ride back here. We all do. When we get to the trailhead Evan parks the truck on the side of the road and we all hop out. We have two ice chests to carry, one for our lunch, the other for the fish we catch. Evan carries one and Ford carries the other. The rest of us carry the fishing gear.

We start out on the path. It's a deer path through weeds that come up to my chest. I think about my plan. I need Josh and Caleb to help me though. When we come to a clearing I tell them I need to talk to them so we hang back behind my brothers.

"I came up with a plan to get them back," I whisper.

"What?" Josh asks.

"Sh. We have to whisper. Do you want to help me?"

"Yes!" They both whisper.

"Ok, we're going to scare them by pretending to get lost!"

"Ok!"

"They'll be so scared. All we have to do is get away from them for a while and then we'll run away. I know a good place to hide. We don't have to hide the whole time, we can play there too!"

They agree that sounds like a good plan.

* * *

When we get to the lake we head to our normal fishing spot. It's a big area with lots of room. We have other spots we like to fish in, but this is the main spot where we'll set everything up at. As soon as everything's ready I get three fishing poles and stand with Caleb and Josh.

"We're really mad at you for scaring us and we don't want to fish with you!" I tell Guthrie, Caleb and Ford. "We're gonna go fish somewhere else and _don't_ follow us!"

Evan laughs and says, "fine by me. I won't follow you."

Guthrie looks at me and he looks sad. I feel a little bad because we always do stuff together, but I know he won't go along with my plan. Besides, I'm still mad at him.

"Let's go!" I tell the boys. We take off around the lake. The lake has pine trees all around it. It's like it's in a forest so there will be lots of good places to hide. We have to go far if we want our plan to work so we walk for a long time. The lake is pretty big and we make sure to walk in places where Evan, Ford and Guthrie won't see us. When I think we've walked far enough I stop.

"This will be a good place to start," I tell the boys. "Adam said I have to fish so that's what we're gonna do for about five minutes. Then I won't get in trouble for not going fishing, because I can say I really did. Let's find some bait."

"You mean like a worm?" Caleb asks.

"Yeah, or some other crawly thing. Come on, I'll show you how to find some." I walk closer to the water and find a big rock to turn over. The ground is wet underneath it and there's lots of creepy crawly things wiggling around.

"Ew!" Josh says.

"They're not gonna hurt you," I tell him. "Pick one up and I'll show you how to put it on your hook."

We each get something and I show them how to put it on the hook and then I help them cast out. Then we stand and wait.

"Did you catch one?" Josh asks.

"No. You'll know you caught something when you feel it tug on your line. That bobber will go up and down too." We're quiet again while we wait.

"How long is this going to take?" Caleb asks.

"I don't know. It's easy to catch fish in this lake because no one but us comes here to fish, so there's lots of fish to catch. But, you never know how long it's going to take." I can tell they're getting bored. I get bored sometimes too.

"Hey! I feel something!" Josh yells.

"You caught a fish!" I yell. I drop my pole and so does Caleb. I help Josh reel it in and it's a small trout. Big enough to keep, but not the biggest I've seen. I take it off the hook for him as it flips and flops. Then I bang it hard against a rock.

"Why'd you do that?" Josh asks.

"To kill it." I put it on a line so it can float in the water while we fish some more.

"Why are you doing that?" Caleb asks.

"That's what you do. It keeps the fish from going bad. You don't want to just let it lie on the ground while you fish all day."

"Oh."

"Come on. We've fished enough, let's go exploring. Maybe we'll even find a bear!"

"A bear?! Really?! I've never seen a bear before!"

I can't tell if Josh is excited or scared about that.

"Me either!" Caleb says. "This is going to be fun!"

Good. I don't need two scared little boys. My plan will never work if _they're_ scared.

I set up our fishing poles so they're still in the water ready to catch something. Sometimes I do that when I get bored and go climb a tree. But today I'm going to take the boys to this spot Guthrie and I found that has a big tree to climb and a small cave to explore. We've been in it and it's really small, but fun. I head off in the direction I think it is, away from the lake. I'm pretty sure I know how to get there, but I always follow Guthrie and never pay close attention to how we get there.

The boys follow me for a long time.

"Are we almost there?" Josh asks.

"Yeah, I'm getting tired of walking," Caleb says.

"We're almost there. It's just over this hill," I tell them, but I'm not sure about that. We should've been there by now. I hope it's just over this hill.

It's not. When we get to the top of the hill I look down and see a river. A big river. I've never seen that before.

"Wow!" Caleb yells. He runs down to it and Josh follows him.

I look around to see if I can figure out where we are, but I can't. I've never been here before. The boys start crossing the river on a big log that lays across it.

"Be careful!" I yell. I run down to them and cross the river too.

"This place is neat!" Caleb says. "Where's the cave?"

I don't know what to say so I say, "I'm pretty sure it's this way." I start walking along the river and they follow. We pick up rocks along the way and throw them in the river.

"Hey! I see a frog!" Josh yells.

"Try to catch it!" Caleb yells as he runs over to Josh.

I'm glad they're having fun because I'm not. I think I really _am_ lost. I wish I'd paid more attention when I went off exploring with Guthrie. I can't let the boys know I'm scared or lost so I keep walking. They can't catch the frog but they keep looking for more.

As I'm walking it looks like we're coming to a clearing. That might be a good place to stop and rest for a while. Maybe I'll see something I recognize. As I get closer to the clearing I see it's not a clearing at all. Well, it kind of is. It's like we're just walking out of the forest and into a rock area where the river just stops. That's weird. It's hot now that we're out of the trees and as I get closer to the end of the river I can see it doesn't stop. We're at the top of a waterfall!

"Wow!" The boys both yell from where I've stopped. I'm at the edge looking down at a rock canyon. The river goes right down the middle. The waterfall part is only about five feet long and then it turns into a river again because the rock canyon isn't steep. At the bottom of the canyon way far away is green pasture as far as I can see. That must be the Johnson's pasture. They used to have the biggest cow herd in all of the Motherlode. But now that it's just Mrs. Johnson, there's no cows.

"Is the cave down there?" Caleb asks.

I don't know what to say. I wish I knew where we were. "Let's sit and rest for a minute before we go down there." We walk back into the trees so we're out of the sun.

"Im hungry," Josh says.

"Me too," Caleb says.

I am too. I look up at the sky to see where the sun is. I'm not sure why _I'm_ doing that because I never pay that close attention to when Guthrie does it. The sun is high in the sky. I know when the sun is low in the sky it's time to go home, but I think it's lunchtime now. I wish we would've brought our lunches with us. I'm thirsty too. I walk over to the river and kneel down. I cup my hands to get some water and drink it. Josh and Caleb do the same.

"Can we go back now?" Josh asks. "I'm really hungry."

I can't take them back because I'm lost. "Let's climb a tree," I suggest. Maybe I'll be able to see something I recognize from up high. Pine trees aren't the easiest to climb, but I find a good sized one and start climbing as high as I can. Caleb starts to climb too.

"Come on Josh, climb!" Caleb tells him.

"I'm afraid I'm gonna fall," he says.

"Then don't let go," I yell down. You can't fall if you don't let go. He starts to climb and I think he likes it because he keeps climbing up. Once I get as high as I can climb I look around. Darn! I can't see anything! There are too many trees in the way! I don't know which way to go!

"Can we go to the cave now?" Caleb asks.

"I guess so." I start to climb down.

"How do I get down?" Josh yells.

He's below me. "You climb!"

"How do you climb _down_?" He asks.

"What'd you mean? You just climb down! Haven't you ever climbed a tree before?!" I ask.

"Not really."

What?! These boys don't know how to do anything! I keep climbing down to where Caleb is. He's climbing down slowly. When I get to a spot that's good to jump I jump down to the ground.

"Josh, just jump! You're so close to the ground," I tell him.

"I can't! I'm scared!"

Caleb jumps down and we both look up at Josh. He's so close I can reach up and touch the bottom of his foot.

"Jump!" Caleb yells.

"No!"

"Then you're gonna have to stay up there!" I yell. "We're gonna go to the cave. If you want to come with us, jump!"

Josh starts crying. Oh my gosh! Just jump, I want to scream at him. I start to walk off to see if that will get him to jump. Caleb follows me.

"Wait!" Josh yells.

"Don't turn around," I tell Caleb. "Just keep walking."

We do and I hear Josh jump.

"Ow!" He cries. We turn around and run to him. He's sitting on his knees looking at his hands.

"What hurts?" I ask. "My hands!" He cries and he holds his palms up for us to see.

"You scraped them," I tell him. His palms are bleeding a little. "What else hurts?" I ask.

"Nothing. Just my hands."

"Then why are you crying?" I ask.

He looks up at me and says, "because they hurt."

"It's just a scrape!"

"But they're bleeding."

"So. Wipe the blood off on your shirt and let's go," I tell him.

Caleb looks at me and says, "then there'll be blood on his shirt."

I look at him. "So."

"So, his shirt will have blood on it."

"It washes off. Come on, do you want to go to the cave, or not?"

Josh stops crying and gets up. I can tell his palms are stinging but he's not really hurt. We walk back over to the top of the waterfall and start climbing down the rock canyon. I hope there's a cave somewhere around here.

* * *

It's hot and we're hungry. We've been walking a long time and we're all sweaty. I look at Josh's face and it's dirty too. Probably from crying. Caleb's is dirty too. Mine must be. We keep stopping and getting drinks from the river. At least we have water. We better find a cave soon so we can get some shade.

"I'm hot!" Josh cries. "I'm tired too!"

"I know," I tell him. "It's just a little while longer."

I feel like we've been walking down this rock canyon forever. I look up at the sun. It's not high in the sky anymore. It's not low either, so it must be the middle part of the afternoon. I wonder if Evan, Ford and Guthrie know we're gone yet. I hope they do because I'm lost. I'm really, really lost. I feel like sitting down on a rock and crying. That's what I would do if I was with Guthrie and we were lost. I wish Guthrie was here. But I can't cry because that would scare the boys.

"Is that a cave?" Caleb asks. He points to an area of rock that looks like there's a dark spot.

I walk closer to it. "I think it is!" I start walking over to it faster. The boys follow me. Sure enough we're walking towards a cave.

It takes us a while to reach it because it's higher up from us. When we walk up to it I can see it goes back into the hill. It's not a rock cave, it's a dirt cave.

"Do you think there's a bear in there?" Josh asks.

"Maybe." I wish I had my BB gun. When Guthrie and I go exploring for bears we always bring our BB guns with us. Our brothers think that's funny, but we don't. I wish I had mine now so I could shoot a warning shot and see if something's in there.

When I get to the opening it's pretty big for a cave. We can all stand up in the opening, we don't have to crouch down to get inside. As soon as we're in it, we feel the cool air and it feels nice.

"Ah." Caleb says. "It's nice and cool in here."

"I know. Let's see how far back this goes," I say.

I think we all get a boost of energy from the coolness of the cave and we're all excited to explore it.

It's a long cave. I wonder if it was a mining cave.

"Do you think there's gold in here?" Caleb asks. "My dad says there's still gold in this area."

"I don't know if there's gold in _this_ cave, but there is still gold around in the area. Not a lot, but some," I tell him.

"Can we look for gold in here?" Josh asks.

"I wish I had a flashlight," I tell him. "It's gonna be pretty dark once we get away from the opening of this cave. We can't go further back than the light lets us."

"Then what are we gonna do?" Caleb asks. "You said we were going to a fun hiding spot where we could play while we wait for them to find us."

He's right, I did say that. I sigh. I can't tell them I'm lost or they'll probably start crying. I know I would and I know I want to right now. We find a good place to sit in the cave and rest.

"When are they gonna find us?" Josh asks.

"I don't know. Soon, I think."

"I hope so, because I'm starving!" Caleb says.

"Me too," I say.

"Heidi, can we go back now?" Josh asks. "Please?"

That sounds like something I would say. "I guess so." I don't really know where to go, but I can't tell them that. I guess we should go back up to the top of the waterfall.

We walk out of the cave and immediately feel the heat of the sun. I think it feels hotter because we're surrounded by a bunch of rocks. I look up to the waterfall and cover my face with my hands.

"What's wrong?" Josh asks.

I uncover my face and we all look up to the top of the waterfall. It's so far up! We walked a long way down, but it didn't seem like it was that far because we never really got close to the bottom of the canyon. But looking up now I can see, we walked a _long_ way. It's going to be really hard to climb back up. Especially with it being so hot.

Josh and Caleb start to whine. "It's too far up! It's too hot!"

"I know," I say. "Do you want to wait here until the sun goes down a little more?"

"I guess so," they both say.

We get back just inside the opening of the cave where it's cooler and sit down. Now what do we do? What if they can't find us? What if we're lost forever because nobody _ever_ finds us? Now I really feel like crying and I do. I don't cry out loud, but if the boys looked at my face right now they would see the tears.

"What are we gonna do?" Caleb asks. Josh starts to cry.

"It's ok Josh," I tell him. "They'll find us soon." I say it even though I don't believe it.

"I'm hungry and tired. I just want to go home! I want my mommy!"

I hear Caleb start to cry. "Heidi, let's go back. I don't want to pretend we're lost anymore."

When he starts to cry, I cry. "I don't know where we are! I'm lost too!"

"What?!" Caleb cries.

"I wish Guthrie was here! He'd know what to do! I want Adam!"

We're all crying now. I'm the oldest so I need to stop and pull us together. That's what Guthrie would do. "Ok, what should we do? Stop crying and let's figure out what to do."

We all wipe our eyes and try to stop crying. I know it's hard for Josh, but at least he's trying.

"What should we do?" Caleb asks.

"Well, it looks like we have two choices. Wait here, or try to find our way back. My brothers told me when you're lost in the woods, you need to stay where you're at so you don't get more lost. Do you want to wait here in the cave, or go up to the top of the waterfall and wait?"

We're all quiet while we think. If we walk up to the waterfall it'll be a really long, hot walk. If we stay here at least we have some shade.

"I think we should stay here and wait for them to find us," I tell them. They both agree so we sit down and cry and wait.


	6. Chapter 6

The sun has gone down a lot now. I can see shadows in the canyon so I come out of the cave and look up at the sky. The sun is going to go behind the treetops soon. That means it's time to go back home for dinner. If Evan and Ford didn't know we were lost yet, they're going to know now.

We've been sitting in the cave this whole time talking about San Francisco. That's where the boys are from. They've been telling me about the ocean, and the tall buildings, and the school they went to that had hundreds of kids at it! All boys! Yuck! They had to wear a uniform too!

While I'm out here I can feel it's not hot anymore. That means it's going to start getting cold soon. Once the sun goes down in the foothills the air starts to get cold. Josh and Caleb come out of the cave now too.

"Should we climb up now?" I ask them. "It's not hot anymore."

"I guess so," Caleb says.

We all start the hike up to the top of the canyon, but we don't get very far because Josh stops and says he's too tired to go any further.

"Come on Josh, we just rested in the cave for a long time. You can't be tired yet." I try to encourage him, but I guess that's not much of an encouragement.

"It's too far!" He cries.

I sigh as I look up, and he's right. We've walked so far today and the top of the canyon is going to be a long climb up. It looks hard. "Then let's just sit here and wait."

We sit on some rocks and Josh starts crying again. "I'm so hungry!" He cries.

"I know," Caleb says.

"Me too. They have to be here soon. It's almost dinnertime," I tell them. I look up at the sky and watch the sun go behind the treetops. I hope I don't get in trouble for this. Evan and Ford should've found us by now! All I wanted to do was scare them. They were supposed to find out we were missing and get scared and then go look for us. This is taking too long. Adam is expecting all of us to be home now, which means one of them is gonna have to go home and tell someone we're lost. I _am_ gonna get in trouble for this!

We're starting to get cold now. Once the sun goes behind the treetops the rock canyon looks different. There's an orange tint to the granite rocks. The sky has orange in it too. I bet it's a pretty sunset. Pretty soon the canyon isn't orange anymore it's just gray. It's kind of scaring me because it's so quiet here and spooky looking. The only sound we can hear is the river.

"Heidi, why is the canyon getting dark now? It looks scary and I'm afraid of the dark!" Josh cries.

I am too. Usually when Guthrie and I go exploring we have a flashlight with us. This time there's no flashlight. I want to cry too. "Josh stop crying. We need to be able to hear someone yelling our names. Then we have to yell back."

"When are they gonna come?" He asks.

"I don't know. We just have to listen carefully."

I feel like we've been sitting here forever. I'm beginning to wonder if they're ever gonna find us. Maybe we should yell first. "Help!" I yell. My voice echoes throughout the canyon. This place has the best echo I've ever heard. The boys start to yell too.

"Help!" We all yell. We listen to the echoes. They have to hear us!

"Adam!" I yell. We start yelling out my brothers' names, and anything else we can think of, but no one calls back. My voice is getting tired now. "Stop yelling. We need to save our voices for when we hear them."

We're all quiet again. I look at Josh. His cheeks are so dirty from wiping his tears away. I look at Caleb too. I think we're all dirty. Why did I have to come up with this stupid plan. What if no one ever finds us and we die out here?!

"Heidi!" I stand up and listen. I think I hear someone calling my name. "Heidi!" I hear it again.

"Help!" I yell. Josh and Caleb stand up and start yelling too.

"Sh!" I tell them. "We have to listen."

"Heidi! Josh! Caleb!"

The voice is getting closer! "Help!" We all yell together.

"Heidi!" The voice is even closer now. I see a horse at the top of the waterfall.

"We're down here!" I yell.

"Help!" Josh and Caleb yell.

We all jump up and down and wave our arms in the air. I think it's Daniel up there on the horse. "Help!" I yell again. The person on the horse holds a shotgun up in the air and shoots it. Josh and Caleb start crying.

"No stop!" I yell at them. "That's how he tells everyone else looking for us that he found us. He's not shooting at us. Now the other people know they can stop looking for us and they head in the direction of the shotgun.

I don't think they believe me because they don't stop crying. The horse is being lead slowly and carefully down the canyon. As he gets closer I can see it's Daniel.

"Daniel!" I yell.

"Are you guys ok?" He yells down to us.

"Yes! They're scared of the shotgun!"

"We've been looking all over for you guys!" Daniel yells.

I look up past him to the top of the canyon and see more people on horses.

"Daniel!" That's Adam's voice calling down.

"They're down here!" Daniel yells up. I watch Adam bring his horse down and another one follows. I think it's Brian. It's hard to see. Not because it's too dark, but just because they're up so high and there's lots of shadows.

"This is as far as I can go with the horse!" Daniel yells down to us. He gets off his horse and starts waking to us. We start walking to him and then I start running to him. Well, it's not really running because I'm climbing up rocks, but it's faster than walking. When we reach each other he picks me up and hugs me. "We were so worried about you!"

I hug him back and say, "I've never been so glad to see somebody in my whole entire life!"

"Me too!" He says.

We hug each other until Josh and Caleb reach us and then he puts me down. He crouches down so he's at our eye level. "Are you guys ok?" He asks.

"She got us lost!" Caleb yells.

"Yeah! She said this would be fun, but it wasn't!"

"Hey wait a minute!" I yell at them. "Stop talking! Let _me_ tell what happened!"

"No!" Caleb yells. "She said we were just gonna scare them, but she got us lost!"

Adam is almost here. Brian's staying with the horses. I need to get these boys to shut up! I turn and face them and glare at them when I say quietly, "don't talk! Let me do all the talking or we're gonna get in more trouble!"

"_We're_ not in trouble!" Caleb yells. "_You_ are! You made us do this!"

"What's going on?" Adam asks. "Are you guys ok?" He rushes up to us and hugs us.

Daniel says, "they're ok. They're just trying to explain what happened."

"There'll be plenty of time to explain later," Adam says. "Right now we need to get these kids home before it gets too cold."

"Are we gonna ride the horses back?" Josh asks excitedly.

"Yes, so let's go," Adam tells him.

"I'm riding with Daniel!" I yell and I grab his hand.

"No you're not. You're riding with me," Adam says. He's looking down at me with a serious look on his face but I don't care, I don't want to ride back with him. Now that he knows we're not hurt he's gonna be mad at me. Whenever me and Guthrie go out exploring and we get lost, which happens a lot, he's always glad we're not hurt, but after that, he gets mad.

"No thanks. I'd rather ride back with Daniel," I tell him.

"You're riding with me," he says louder.

"I don't want to," I tell him.

Daniel lets go of my hand and helps Josh and Caleb walk up to where Brian is waiting with the horses. I try to go with them but Adam takes my arm and holds me back. He turns me around so I'm facing him and then he kneels down in front of me.

"Do you want to walk back?" He asks me and he looks pretty mad when he says it. "Because that's where this is heading."

"Ok," I tell him. If it means I don't have to ride with him and listen to him yell at me the whole way back, I'll walk. Now he looks madder.

"I am so mad at you right now, and I'm trying my best not to yell at you in front of those boys so I don't scare them, but I'm running out of patience."

"That's why I don't want to ride back with you! You're just gonna yell at me the whole way back!"

"Your darn right I'm gonna yell at you!" He yells. "Look around you Heidi!" I look around and he says, "where are you?!"

"In a rock canyon," I say.

"And how did you get here!" He yells.

"We walked down here." He's starting to confuse me. How else would we have gotten down here? "We were looking for a cave, and guess what?! We found one! It's over...," I start to point to where the cave is but Adam grabs my arm and holds it down.

Brian whistles down and yells, "Adam?! Are you coming?!"

"We'll be right behind you. Go ahead without us!" He yells up then he looks at me again. "Explain to me how you ended up here."

"I thought you wanted to talk about it when we got home," I remind him. "I'm hungry and I'm getting cold."

"Tough luck! Start explaining!"

"Explain what?"

"How did you end up here?!" He asks again.

"I told you. We walked down here."

Adam stands up and yells, "I don't have the patience for this Heidi! You know what I mean! I know you _walked_ down here! I want to know what the heck you're doing down here! I want to know how and more specifically _why_ you wandered off in the first place! You know better than this! You put your life in danger and those little boys' lives in danger!"

"We were looking for a cave," I remind him.

He stares at me when I say that. I'm pretty sure he's madder but suddenly he seems calm. He crouches down in front of me again and holds his hand up in front of me with fingers about an inch apart and says in his serious voice, "you are about _this_ close to getting the spanking of your life."

I try to back away from him but he takes his hands and holds me by pinning both my arms at my sides so I can't move. I start to cry and I say, "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to answering your questions. Please don't spank me. I'll ride home with you and you can yell at me all you want."

He stares at me and I pray in my head, "please don't let him spank me! Please!" All of a sudden he stands up and says, "let's go!" I guess I was holding my breath because once he says that I let it all out in one big sigh.

He starts walking up to his horse and I follow. I think I can hear him talking to himself. I can't hear what he's saying, but I know he's saying something. When we get to his horse, he lifts me up so I can get on, and then he gets on behind me. I would much rather sit behind him so it's harder to hear him yell at me. Sure enough, he starts yelling right away.

"Why did you leave the lake?" He yells.

"I can't hear you!" I yell back.

"Yes you can!"

"No I can't!"

"Yes you can or you wouldn't have answered that!"

What? He's confusing me. I know I can hear him, but I'm pretending I can't. How does he know if I can hear him or not?

"I told you I was gonna be mad at you if you didn't go fishing today!"

"I did go fishing!" I yell.

"You know what I mean!"

"No I don't! I did fish!"

"Heidi you are treading on thin ice right now! Do you know what that means?"

"What?" I yell. "I can't hear you!"

He stops his horse and yells, "can you hear me now?!"

"I want to get off now!" I yell. I try to get off but of course I can't when Adam puts his arm around my waist. He starts his horse again and when we get to the top of the canyon he makes his horse gallop. I love galloping fast on Adam's horse. He can gallop faster than Lucy. It doesn't take long for him to catch up to Brian and Daniel.

We all ride back in silence. It's taking us a long time to get back to the lake. We must've walked pretty far and it's getting darker now and I'm getting colder. At least riding with Adam is keeping my back warm. I'm really hungry and thirsty too.

It seems like we've been riding forever and when I finally see the lake come into view, we're on the other side of it from where we started out on our hike. How did that happen? We must've really walked far. We ride around the lake and take the trail out to the road.

* * *

When we ride up to the house I hear Guthrie yelling, "they're back!"

Adam stops his horse and everyone comes out of the house. Crane walks over to Adam's horse and helps take me off while Evan and Ford help the others. Then Adam, Brian and Daniel ride their horses over to the barn.

"Are you ok?" Crane asks me.

I hug him tight and say, "yes."

"Where were you?!" Evan yells as he comes up to Crane's side and walks along with him.

"Evan, stop!" Crane says loudly. That's a yell for him. "Let's get them inside first so they can get warm."

"But I want to know where they were!" Evan glares at me. "Where'd you go?!"

"Evan stop!" Crane says again and he puts me down. He pulls Evan away from me.

Guthrie runs up to me. "Are you ok? What happened? Where'd you guys go?" We both hug each other and he says, "I'm glad you're safe."

When we get inside Hannah is in there and she smiles at us. "I'm glad you're alright," she says. The boys run up to her and hug her. They start to cry a little. "Heidi," she says, "go get washed up for dinner and take the boys with you. Make sure you wash your hands _and_ your faces. You guys are pretty dirty."

I go upstairs to the bathroom and they follow me. When we get there I stand in front of the sink and turn the water on. "You guys need to be quiet and let _me_ do all the talking," I tell them. It feels weird for me to say that. Usually Guthrie says that to me. Now I know why.

"Why? You got us lost!" Caleb yells.

"Stop saying that!" I yell and I shove him out of the bathroom.

"Hey! That's my brother!" Josh yells and he pushes me. He's stronger than he looks because he's able to push me out of the bathroom too. I get pushed into Caleb as he's trying to come back in and I knock him down. Then Josh pushes me again.

"Will you stop that!" I yell as I push him. He falls down onto the bathroom floor and starts to cry.

"What's going on up here?" Adam yells, as him and Brian come running up the stairs.

"She pushed me!" Caleb yells while pointing to me.

"He pushed me!" I yell while pointing to Josh.

"She pushed me!" Josh yells.

"Well knock it off!" Adam yells. "All of you!" Then he stares at us for a minute and sighs. "Brian, get two wash cloths and help me get these guys cleaned up. "Heidi wash your hands first and you two come out here in the hallway." Brian gets two washcloths wet and puts a little bit of soap on them. He gives one to Adam and they wash the dirt off Caleb and Josh's faces.

Brian laughs a little and says, "doesn't this remind you of the good old days when Daniel, Evan and Ford were this little?"

Adam doesn't say anything he just glares at Brian. When I'm done washing my hands Josh goes in to wash his and Brian scrubs my face with the washcloth. I try to move my face away from him but he stands up behind me and lifts my chin up with his whole hand tightly so I can't move it and washes my face.

"Did Daniel, Evan and Ford fight?" I ask Brian. I already know the answer. It's yes. They all three got along really well, but they had times when the fought.

"Heidi, stop talking," Adam says. I look at him and the look on his face tells me I'd better not ask why like I want to. Caleb washes his hands now and when he's done we all go downstairs.

* * *

I sit down at the table next to Caleb while dinner gets put on the table. I'm so hungry! We're having fried chicken and mashed potatoes! Yum! When everyone's sitting down the food gets passed around. I hear Caleb complain about not liking the skin on the chicken.

"That's the best part!" I tell him.

"I don't like it," he says.

"Just take it off."

"My mom takes it of for me."

Hannah reaches over and takes the skin off his chicken.

"She doesn't leave it on my plate," he says.

Guthrie and I look at each other and roll our eyes. Then we smile at each other. I missed Guthrie today. I'm so hungry I start eating as fast as I can.

"Slow down!" Hannah says. She smiles at me and says, "there's plenty of food and guess what? I made you're favorite dessert."

"Apple pie?!" I ask.

She nods her head.

"Thank you Hannah!"

Then I hear Josh say, "we don't like apple pie."

"Why not?" I ask.

"We just don't."

"Well, do you like ice cream?" I ask him. "We always have ice cream with apple pie."

"Together?! Yuck!" Caleb says so I glare at him.

"Heidi," Hannah says, "remember, not everyone likes the same things."

"Yeah, you didn't like the lemon pie last night. _Remember_?" Caleb says to me.

That makes me mad! Just the way he says it to me! "Shut up!" I yell at him. The room goes quiet to me and all I can see is Caleb's face. He's saying something to me because his mouth is moving but I can't hear him. My brain is just thinking about punching him. I feel someone holding me back so I can't punch him. I look up and see it's Crane.

"Don't do it." He says and I relax. Then he switches our plates and glasses and moves me to his chair while he sits in mine.

"Hey! Why do I have to move?" I yell. I can see Caleb smiling at me so I pick up my biscuit and throw it at him. He doesn't like that, but Guthrie does. Sometimes we throw our biscuits or rolls at each other. And by _we_ I mean all my brothers. We don't do it as much as we used to now that Hannah's here. She says it makes a big mess she doesn't want to have to clean up.

Guthrie throws his biscuit at Josh and Adam yells, "hey! We're not doing that tonight so knock it off!" I hear some of my brothers laugh a little bit. I look up at Brian and he's not one of them. I'm sitting in between him and Crane now and I don't like it. Both of them are acting mad tonight just like Adam.

I look at them and ask, "are you guys going into town tonight?"

"Why?" Brian asks.

"No reason. I just think you should. All three of you." I point to Crane, Brian and Adam.

Daniel and Evan think that's funny and they laugh until they get glared at by Adam. Then Adam says to Evan, "you think that's funny? Just remember you're doing the dishes tonight instead of going into town!" Evan's not happy now.

That must be part of his punishment from last night. I listen to my brothers talk and it sounds like Ford and Guthrie have to help with the dishes too. Now I'm really sure doing the dishes is a punishment.

"If they're washing the dishes, what am I doing tonight?" I ask.

"You're taking a bath," Adam says while looking at me.

"Then what?" I ask.

"Then we are going to have a long talk."

"Who's _we_?" I ask.

"You and me," he says.

"But that's not gonna be fun," I tell him.

"No, it's not."

I look down at my plate and start pushing my food around with my fork. Talking means yelling. Why do we always have peas when we have mashed potatoes? I make a mountain with the potatoes and start pressing peas onto the sides. I'm not hungry anymore. I bet I'm going to have to go to bed early tonight. I wonder if I'll get to sleep downstairs with the boys. Probably not. I guess that's ok since I don't like any of them anyway.

"Heidi!" I hear Brian yell.

"What?" I guess I was thinking too hard.

"I asked if you were done," he says.

"Yes."

"Then help clear the table so we can have dessert."

I stand up and help everyone clear off the table. I don't think I want any dessert, but it's my favorite so I'll have some. I eat it quietly while I sit in the middle of Brian and Crane. When I'm done Adam tells me to take a bath. Don't worry, I think to myself, I'm going to take a bath. I'm going to take the longest bath I've ever taken.

* * *

"Heidi, finish up and get out of the tub!" Adam yells from outside the bathroom door.

I'm laying in the bathtub soaking. I don't know how long I've been in here but I've already had to put more warm water in because the water got too cold, so I must've been in here for a while.

"I'm not done!" I tell him.

"You've been in there for over a half hour! Hurry up!" He yells.

I haven't even started to wash myself yet. I guess I'd better start. It only takes me a minute to do that and then a dunk my head under the water to get my hair wet. I hold my breath and stay underwater until I can't hold it anymore. Then I pop up and reach for the shampoo.

I wonder how long I can wash my hair for. I bet if I put lots of shampoo on it would take a long time to rinse. The bottle of shampoo is a new one and I make my hand into a little cup and fill it with shampoo. As I put it on my head half of it spills out on the way. I rub the rest into my hair and then cup my hand again to put more shampoo in it. I keep doing that until I've used half the bottle. My hair feels weird. I can make it into the shape of anything I want to. I wish I could see myself in the mirror. I jump when there's a knock on the door.

"Get out of the bathroom!" It's Adam again.

"I'm washing my hair!" I yell.

"What have you been doing in there this whole time?"

"Washing myself! I was really dirty!"

"If you don't get out soon, I'm coming in to help!"

"No! Don't! I'm ten, I can wash myself!" I dunk my head under the water and rub the shampoo out of my hair. I can hear Adam yelling when I pop back up. I rub my hair and there's still lots of shampoo in it.

"I'm coming in!"

"No!" I yell as the door opens and Adam is standing there. The water in the bathtub comes all the way up to my neck and with all the soap in the water he can't see anything. "I'm getting out now! I need to get my towel! Go away!"

"You _are not_ getting out now! Your hair is full of shampoo!"

Oh. I put my head underwater again and rub my hair with my hands. When I pop up and open my eyes Adam is still standing there. I feel my hair and there's still a lot of shampoo in it. Adam comes closer and kneels on the floor in front of the tub. He picks up the pitcher I'm supposed to be using to rinse my hair and fills it with water from the faucet.

"No don't! Can't you at least get Hannah to come help me?!"

"She's busy. It's not like I haven't helped you before," he says as he dumps cold water on my head.

"Hey! That's cold water!" I yell.

"Sorry." He fills the pitcher again and this time he checks to make sure the water is warm.

"You haven't helped give me a bath since I was..., since I was four years old!"

Adam laughs at that and pours warm water on my head. "No, you were probably eight. It looks like I need to help you more with your baths," he says while he rubs my hair to see if there's any shampoo still in it. There is. "What did you do? Pour a whole bottle of shampoo on your head?"

"No, just half the bottle," I tell him.

He looks at me and says, "why did you do that?"

I shrug my shoulders while he finishes rinsing my hair. It takes a while to get all the shampoo out, but when he finally does he says, "drain the water and get out." Then he stands up and leaves.

I wonder how long I can dry myself for. I don't get much time to think about that because Adam yells at me from outside the door.

"If you're not out here in five minutes, I'm coming in and helping you. I don't care if I have to dress you myself."

"What are you doing?" I ask. "Waiting outside the door?!"

"Yes. Hurry up!"

I growl at the door, but quickly dry myself and put my pajamas on. When I open the door Adam is waiting right outside it.

"Jeez! Can't a girl get any privacy!" I yell at him while glaring.

"Knock it off and go get your comb. Bring it into my room," he says.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I said so!" He yells.

"Ok, ok!" I bring my dirty clothes out of the bathroom and throw them on the floor in my bedroom. I pick up my comb that's on top of my dresser and start combing my hair.

"I want you to do that in my room," he says when he gets to my doorway.

"I always do it in here."

"No you don't! You can't even see your whole head in the mirror!"

He's right. "How come my mirror is up so high? How come it's not lower so I can see myself?" I ask while I still comb my hair.

"Because it's above your dresser. Come on."

"That's not really an answer to my question," I tell him. "I want to know...,"

"Come! Now!"

"Fine!" I stomp by him on my way to his room and he follows behind me. I walk right up to the full length mirror in his room and start combing my hair again. He shuts the door and sits down on his bed. I try to comb the back but I feel a huge tangle back there. It hurts so I stop trying to get it out and comb the side of my hair instead. The part I already combed.

"Come here and let me help you," he says.

"I can do it. I'm almost done," I tell him.

"You have a huge tangle in back. Come here and let me help you."

"No! You'll hurt me!"

"No I won't. Come here, now."

I sigh and walk over to him and hand him my comb. I stand in between his legs with my back towards him and he starts to comb my hair.

"Ow! That hurts!" I cry.

"Sorry. You've got a big rat's nest back here."

"Can't you just cut it out?" I ask.

"No. Hold still or it's gonna hurt worse."

I try to hold still, but it hurts a lot so I try to pull my head away from him.

"Stop moving around!" He yells as he pulls on my hair with the comb and I cry. It hurts a lot! Finally it feels like he's finished. He combs the rest of my hair now and says, "there, I got the tangle out." He combs gently and I'm not sure why he's still combing my hair because I already combed the rest.

"Are you done yet?" I ask. "I already combed that part."

He keeps on combing gently and I'm not sure why, and when he's finished he sets my comb on the bed and smooths my hair back with his hand a few times. Then he turns me around so I'm facing him. I'm still standing in between his legs so we're really close. He lifts my chin up so I'm looking at his face. I'm not gonna look in his eyes though.

"Look at me," he says.

I look and say, "what?"

"I'm really disappointed with you."

I don't say anything. I start to feel sad because I hate it when I disappoint him. I think it makes him sad.

"I want you to tell me what happened today," he says. He's not yelling which is good and bad. If he yells I can yell back, but if he just talks in his serious voice I feel bad and it makes me want to cry. "What happened?" He says again.

"We got lost."

"How did that happen?"

"I didn't know where we were," I tell him. I don't think that was the right answer because his eyes start to glare just a tiny bit, but then they just look serious again.

"Why didn't you know where you were?"

"Because I was lost."

That was the wrong answer. His eyes _are_ glaring now and he picks me up and sets me on the bed where all the pillows are. Only he's not really _setting_ me on the bed he's kind of throwing me on it.

"What'd you do that for?" I ask.

"Because I'm getting frustrated with you and it's better for you if you're over there." He moves so he's facing me while he's sitting on the bed.

"Why's it better?" I ask as I pick up my comb.

"It just is! Now you're going to tell me what happened today and you're going to start from the beginning."

I look up at him and smile. "The beginning of what? The day? Going fishing? Or the lost part?"

He doesn't smile back. I think he's madder. "The beginning of the lost part!"

"We got lost because I didn't know where we were going."

"Why were you out wandering around?!" He yells really loudly.

That startles me a little bit. "We were bored with fishing so we wanted to climb a tree."

Now he glares at me and says, "you're not telling me what I want to know!"

I look down at my comb and rub my thumb over it so it makes a noise. "Maybe you're not asking the right questions," I tell him.

"What?!"

"I _said_..,"

"I heard what you said! Put the comb down and look at me!"

I sigh and let go of the comb. I look up at him and wait for him to talk. He looks mad but it also looks like he's calming down a little bit. I wish Hannah was in here, she knows how to calm him down a lot! "Where's Hannah?" I ask.

"She's helping Caleb and Josh with their bath. Heidi, I want to let you know I already talked to the boys about what happened today."

"If you already know what happened, what are you asking me for?!"

"To see if you have anything to add, or to tell me."

"Ok, whatever they said is a lie."

He looks at me and raises his eyebrows.

"What did they say happened?" I ask.

"I want you to tell me first."

"Well I don't want to," I say quietly as I look down and pick up the comb again.

He takes the comb out of my hand and puts it to the side. I can still reach it, but I think I'll wait a while before I pick it up again. "We're you trying to scare Evan, Ford and Guthrie by running away and hiding?"

"We weren't gonna hide. We were gonna play while we waited for them to find us. Then we were gonna hide."

"I told you I wanted you to fish today. I also told you I'd be mad if you didn't."

"I did fish!" I look up at him. "We even caught a fish!"

"How long did you fish for?"

"I don't know. How long did you _want_ me to fish for?"

He doesn't say anything. Then he says slowly, "all day."

"Oh. Well, I didn't fish _all day_. But you didn't tell me I had to."

"I didn't think I needed to!" He yells. "You knew what I meant!"

"I did not! You said I had to fish, and I did! If you wanted me to fish all day you should've told me that!"

There's a knock at the door and it opens and Hannah sticks her head in. "Everything all right in here?" She asks.

"No!" I yell as I jump off the bed. "Adam's yelling and he needs you in here to help calm him down!" I pull on her arm trying to pull her into the room.

"We're fine!" Adam yells.

"See?! He's yelling too loud!"

Hannah smiles down at me and says, "it sounds like you're yelling too."

"But _he's_ the adult!" I yell pointing to Adam.

"You're right!" He yells. "And I've had enough of this! Get back over here and sit down on this bed! We're fine Hannah."

She closes the door and I walk back over to the bed. I stand next to it and fold my arms across my chest and glare at him.

"Don't give me that look!" He picks me up and sets me on the bed. Then he stare at me. "I don't like what you did today. You tried to scare your brothers and you ended up getting lost and scaring all of us. You also involved Josh and Caleb and that's not ok."

"But Evan and Ford scared us!" I cry.

"I know, and they're being punished for that."

"How?"

"That's none of your business."

I'll just ask them later.

"What maters right now is you. We are talking about you disobeying me."

"I didn't disobey you!" I cry.

"When did you come up with your plan to scare the boys?" He asks.

"What?"

"You heard me."

I don't say anything. Is this a trick question? How do I answer it? "I don't know."

"Think about it. Did you come up with the plan last night, in the morning, while you were fishing? When did you think it?"

I guess I just have to tell the truth because I don't understand why he's asking. "I thought of it after breakfast." I cover my mouth with my hand. That doesn't sound good!

"That's what I thought," he says and I start to cry. "You already knew what you were going to do before you left the house. You knew you weren't going to fish then either, did you? That's why you were smiling at me this morning."

I look at him and nod while I cry. "But I really did fish!"

"I know, but you also knew you were going to do something wrong. You did something very dangerous too. Do you understand that? Do you know you and the boys could've been seriously hurt? What if we didn't find you? You're lucky we found you when we did. It gets cold at night."

"I'm sorry." I can't stop crying. "I wish I could take this whole day back."

"Me too. But you can't. You need to think before you do stuff, Heidi. You need to think about the consequences before you do something."

"Like how I'm gonna get in trouble if I do it?"

"Yes, and other things, like if I do this, is someone going to get hurt, or will I get hurt."

"_Am_ I in trouble for this?" I ask.

"Yes. You're grounded for a week. That means no playing after school, you'll have extra chores to do and you'll be going to bed early. Tomorrow you're going to get up early and help Brian in the barn."

I cry and he reaches over and pulls me onto his lap and hugs me. "Adam I didn't want to go fishing today. I just wanted to stay with you."

"I know," he says quietly. "That just couldn't happen today." He holds me while I cry. "I think you're tired now and it's bedtime."

"But it's still early!"

"I know. All of you have had a long, tiring day. I think you all need to go to bed now."

"Do I still get to sleep downstairs tonight?"

"If you still want to. Do you want to?"

"Yes. I think I'll be too afraid in my room."

"Ok." He stands up with me and carries me to the door. I wrap my arms around his neck tight as he opens the door and carries me downstairs.

* * *

Hannah already has our sleeping bags out and ready for us to sleep in. Guthrie is in his and there's four more sleeping bags set out too, besides mine, Josh's and Caleb's. Adam lowers me down to my bag and I let go and crawl in my sleeping bag. Then he walks into the kitchen and says something about helping Hannah with the boys. I think they're talking on the phone to their parents.

"Why are there so many sleeping bags down here?" I ask. "Is 'everyone' gonna sleep down here!" I start pointing to the empty sleeping bags. "Adam, Hannah, Brian, Crane. What about everyone else?"

Guthrie laughs and says, "Brian, Crane and Daniel are in town. Evan and Ford are sleeping down here with us and Adam and Hannah too."

I look at the couch where Evan and Ford are sitting with their arms folded across their chests and their eyes glaring so I laugh. "What's wrong with you guys?!"

They glare at me and Guthrie says, "they're grounded. Ford can't go out with Cleo tonight and Evan can't go into town. They also have to sleep down here because Adam wants them to wake up in the middle of the night if you guys have nightmares again. He wants them to see how much they scared you and see what it's like to have to stay up and try to put someone back to bed when they're scared."

I smile at them. "I _always_ get nightmares after I've been scared."

"You know what Heidi?! I'm mad at you for what you did today!" Evan says.

"Me too," Ford says.

"Me three!" Guthrie says, but I can tell he's really not.

"You scared us," Ford says.

"That's what I wanted to do. You scared me." I look at Guthrie and he smiles at me and says, "I'm glad you're safe." I smile back at him.

"I'm sorry I scared you Guthrie, and I'm sorry I left you out of my plan," I tell him.

"I'm glad you did!" He says. "Then I'd be in trouble for that too!"

"Did Adam talk to you about last night?" I ask him.

"Yeah. He grounded me for a week."

"Same here," I tell him. I look over at Evan and Ford. "What did Adam do to you in the barn last night?"

"Yeah, why'd you have to go out to the barn?" Guthrie asks.

Evan glares at me and says, "none of your business!"

"Did he punch you?!" I yell as I jump up out of my sleeping bag.

"No he didn't punch us! Why do you always ask us that?!" Evan yells.

"Lay down Heidi," Adam says as he walks back in here. "I didn't punch them. You know that."

He's right, I do know that. Adam would never punch any of us if we did something wrong. But sometimes my brothers want to punch each other when they get mad at each other. Usually it's over a girl, but somebody's always around to break it up. "Did you hit them?"

"No."

"Did you push them?" I smile at Evan when I ask that. He glares back at me.

"No."

"Did you spank them?"

Evan starts to get up and he yells, "I'm gonna spank _you_ in a minute!" But Ford holds him back and Guthrie and I laugh.

"Evan stop!" Adam yells. "You know she's just trying to get under your skin."

Adam's right. Out of all my brothers, Evan's the one I can make mad the fastest. I smile at Evan and tease him when I say, "you can't do that to me."

Adam says, "no he can't. But _I_ can, and that's where this is heading if you don't stop bugging him."

Now Evan smiles at me and I glare at him.

"Well did you Adam?" I ask.

"Did I what?"

"Did you spank them?"

Guthrie laughs and says, "can you just picture that in your mind?!" I think about that and laugh too.

"Very funny," Ford says.

"No I didn't Heidi," Adam says.

"Then why'd you send them out to the barn?" I ask.

"To give me time to cool off before I yelled at them. The barn is a long walk from the house and sometimes it gives me time to think about things."

"If you didn't cool off before you got to the barn, _were_ you going to hit them?"

Guthrie laughs and Adam looks at me. "Heidi, I was never going to hit them. Would you stop asking that, please?"

"Ok. Did you swear at them?"

Ford and Evan laugh at that.

"You think that's funny?!" Adam yells.

"That means he swore at them Heidi," Guthrie says and we laugh.

"What did you say?" I ask. "Did you say fu..,"

"Heidi!" Adam yells.

"What? I'm just curious," I tell him while I smile up at him.

"Do you want to sleep upstairs in your room all by yourself?" He asks me.

"No way! I'll be quiet!"

"Good."

"Adam, can we play a board game before we have to go to sleep? Please? We're not tired yet." Guthrie asks.

Hannah comes in with the boys and hot chocolate. It looks like Josh and Caleb have been crying. I wonder why.

"Can we play a game, Adam?" I ask. "Please?" Caleb and Josh ask too. The only people not asking are Evan and Ford. They're still mad.

"I guess so. What game should we play?"

"Poker!" Both Josh and Caleb yell.

"What?!" I yell. "You don't know how to fish or climb a tree, but you know how to play poker?!"

"Our dad taught us. He's really good at it. So are we," Caleb says and he smiles at Josh.

"Alright, let's play," Adam says.

"What's our money gonna be?" Guthrie and I like to play with candy instead of poker chips.

"We're not playing with candy tonight," Hannah says. "You guys don't need any sugar right now."

Darn! Oh well, at least we get to play a game. We all take our hot chocolate into the kitchen and Ford and Evan get the poker stuff. I love to play poker but I'm not very good at it yet.

Ford says he'll be the dealer and he looks at me and says, "don't look at anyone else's cards."

"I only did that once!"

"Nu-uh!" Guthrie says. "You did it more than once!"

I stick my tongue out and him and we laugh. When everyone's ready and has their cards I look at mine and I don't like any of them. When it's my turn I ask Ford for five new cards.

Evan groans and says, "why do you always do that? You know that's not a good way to play."

I shrug my shoulders and Hannah says, "just let her play the way she wants to."

"You never know, I might get four kings!" I look at my new cards and I didn't get four kings, but you never know, it could happen. I don't like my new cards either. I don't even have a pair, but nobody else knows that. I smile big and put half my chips in.

"Oh brother," Evan says. "She either has four of a kind, or nothing!" I think I hear everyone laugh.

I shrug my shoulders and say, "_you'll_ never know."

Evan thinks that's really funny. "What'd ya mean _we'll_ never know?! You're gonna have to show them to us eventually."

I end up losing that hand and it turns out Josh and Caleb _are_ good at playing poker. Well, they're better at it than me. It doesn't take long until I'm out of chips. I'm always the first one out, but I don't care because then I get to go around and help people.

I go to Evan first but he's still mad at me so he tells me to go away. Ford and Guthrie don't want my help. Josh and Caleb don't even let me look at their cards. That just leaves Hannah and Adam. I go to Hannah first. She shows me her cards and whispers, "which ones should I keep?"

"None of them," I tell her. "Ask for five more."

I hear all the boys laughing and Ford says, "that means Hannah doesn't have anything."

I go stand next to Adam. "Whoa!" I yell. He hides his cards from me and everyone else says, "I fold."

"You're bugging people," he says.

"Sorry. I'm bored. Can I have some of your chips?" He gives me a blue one, a red one and five white ones. I move on to Hannah. "Can I have some of your chips?" She gives me a red one and two white.

"Make them last," she says.

"Oh, I will!" I ante up. I look at my cards. I have a king of hearts, a jack of hearts, a ten of hearts and a nine of hearts! I just need a queen of hearts! The other card is a five. I don't want that so I put it down and tell Ford, "I need one card." He gives me one and I look at it and jump up. "I got what I wanted!" That hardly ever happens!

"Well don't tell everybody!" Guthrie says.

"Yeah!" Josh says.

I put all my chips in.

"You have to wait until it's your turn," Ford says.

I sigh and wait and when it's my turn I put them all in.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Adam asks.

I nod my head. "Yep!"

Adam throws chips in and everyone else folds. "Show me your cards," Adam says.

"I have a..., I have...," I lay my cards down. "I have this."

"A straight flush!" Guthrie yells.

I jump up and down and look at Adam while I smile.

"You beat me," he says.

"Yes!" I lean over and slide all the chips in the middle of the table so they're in front of me.

"Hey, you didn't turn your cards over!" Guthrie says to Adam.

"Yeah, what do you have?" Caleb asks.

"Nothing that beats what Heidi has," he says.

I don't need to see his cards. If he says I won, I'm taking the chips. I start sorting them and stacking them up. I have lots of chips now!

Guthrie's sitting next to Adam and he tries to grab Adam's cards, but Adam doesn't let him. He slides them over to Ford. Ford peeks at them and smiles and shuffles them into the deck.

"What'd he have?" Guthrie asks.

"Not much," he says.

"Yes he did!" Guthrie yells.

"There's only one thing it could've been," Caleb says, "a royal flush."

"You had a royal flush?!" Guthrie asks Adam.

He smiles and says, "nope."

"Yeah right! I don't believe you for a second!"

"Come on! Let's play!" I yell. I have all my chips sorted and stacked now.

I only last the next two hands and then all my chips are gone. No one will let me borrow any more either. After a while Josh and Caleb look tired. I'm tired too. Hannah tells us to go lay down so we leave the kitchen and go into the living room. I flop down on my sleeping bag and crawl inside. I don't even care no one's tucking me in right now because I'm so tired. I lay on my side and close my eyes.

I wish I could go to sleep but Josh and Caleb are arguing. At least they're doing it quietly.

"Scoot over!" Caleb says. "You're on my side!"

"No I'm not! You scoot over!" Josh says.

"Don't touch me!"

"I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

I sit up and say, "hey! You two be quiet and go to sleep! Stop bugging each other!" There. I lay back down and close my eyes.

"Ow!" Josh says. "Don't pinch me!"

"I didn't! But I'm going to now!"

"Ow!"

I get up and walk over to them and push them apart. "Stop this right now!" I turn to Caleb. "Move your sleeping bag over here a little and Josh, you move yours this way." They do it and then I say, "there. Now say you're sorry to each other." They glare at each other instead. "Now! You shouldn't be hitting each other! You're brothers! Now apologize!"

They each say they're sorry and I say, "good! Now lie down and go to sleep. I'm tired and I want to go to sleep so no talking!" I get up and walk over to my bag. I get startled when I see Hannah and Adam standing in between the kitchen and the living room watching us. They're smiling at me.

"Everything ok in here?" Hannah asks.

"Yes," I say as I crawl in my sleeping bag. "They were just arguing so I told them to stop. It's hard to sleep when people are talking and you're trying to go to sleep," I tell them.

"I agree," Adam says. I think I here them laughing a little bit and then they both say goodnight.

"Goodnight," I say and I close my eyes and fall asleep.

* * *

When I wake up and open my eyes it's pitch black. I sit up fast and scream as loud as I can.

"What?! What is it?!" Adam says. It sounds like he's next to me.

"It's dark!" I yell.

"Oh, I'm sorry Heidi. Hold on." I can hear him get up.

"What's the matter?" Evan asks. He sounds tired.

Adam says, "I forgot to leave the light on."

"Oh good. I thought she was having a bad dream, but if it's just the light, I'm going back to sleep. That was your fault," Evan says.

Adam has the lamp on now and he lays back down next to me on his sleeping bag. Everyone is awake now because I screamed.

"What? What's wrong?" Ford asks. He lifts his head up a little and sounds really tired.

"Nothing," Evan says. "False alarm everyone, no axe murderer dreams, she just needs the light on. Go back to sleep."

I sit up fast. "Axe murderer! Where?!"

Evan groans and so does Adam. "Evan why'd you have to say that?!"

"There's an axe murderer?" Josh asks.

"Where?" Caleb asks.

"Nowhere," Hannah tells them. "Lay back down and go to sleep." They're really tired so they do.

"What if he's waiting right now at the front door! He's waiting for us to go to sleep!" I yell.

"We 'were' asleep. All of us. If he was waiting for that he'd of killed us all by now!" Evan says.

"What?!" I yell.

"Evan!" Adam yells. "Evan, Ford! Get up! If I have to be up, so do you!" Adam says. I hear them groan and watch them sit up.

I get out of my sleeping bag and yell, "get your shot gun! Quick! Shoot it at the door!"

"Lay down!" Adam yells.

I hear noises upstairs so I look up and Brian, Crane and Daniel are out in the hallway.

"What's going on?" Brian asks. "We heard screaming. What do we need a shotgun for?"

"The axe murderer!" I yell. "Quick get your shotgun! He's at the front door!"

"Be quiet!" Adam yells at me.

I hear lots of groans coming from upstairs and I watch my brothers walk back to their bedroom.

"Lay down," Adam says.

"No, I'm scared."

"Yes, lay down Heidi. I'm right next to you."

"Hurry up and lay down," Evan says, "go to sleep so I can."

"No, I'm scared."

"Come on Heidi," Ford says. He gets up and sits on my sleeping bag. "Lay down."

"If I lay down how am I gonna watch the front door?"

I look at Adam and he looks at Ford. "I'll watch it for you," Ford says.

"But you don't have your shotgun."

"I'll get mine," Evan says while he gets up.

"No, you won't!" Adam says.

"But how are you gonna kill the axe murderer if you don't have a shotgun?"

Evan sits down on my sleeping bag too. "Ford and I will tackle him when he comes through the door."

"What about his axe?" I ask.

"We're fast Heidi. As soon as he comes in, I'll trip him so he falls down and the axe gets knocked out of his hand. Ford will kick it out of the way and then we'll tackle him to the floor."

"Then we'll tie him up," Ford says. "And call the Sheriff."

"You will?"

"Yes. Lay down."

I look at Adam and he nods his head so I lay down. "Promise you'll stay up and watch the door?" I ask Evan and Ford.

"Promise," Ford says. He smiles at me and I smile back.

"I promise too," Evan says. "Do you want us to sing to you?"

"Ok." I lay down and look up at them. They decide what song to sing and start singing. "Stop!" I yell.

"What?" They ask.

"You're supposed to be watching the door!"

They turn sideways and start singing again. I turn on my side and look at Adam. His eyes are closed. "Adam," I whisper.

"What?" He whispers back but doesn't open his eyes.

"Will you hold my hand?"

He opens his eyes and turns to face me. "Sure." He puts his hand on top of my head and slides it down to my cheek. Then he puts his hand on top of mine and whispers, "close your eyes and listen to the song."

I do that and fall asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

"Wake up Heidi!"

I groan. Why is Brian waking me up? Now he's shaking me.

"Time to get up!"

"Go away!" I push him away and curl up in my sleeping bag. I still haven't opened my eyes yet.

"Nope! It's time for you to get up. We've got work to do."

"I'm still sleeping. Go away Brian!"

I feel him lifting me up and picking me up so he can hold me. "Time to wake up sleepyhead."

I rest my head on his shoulder and open my eyes. "It's still dark outside Brian. Why do I have to get up?"

"It's not dark outside, the sun is just coming up," he says as he carries me upstairs.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"Upstairs. You need to get dressed."

"Why Brian? I just want to sleep. Please let me go back to sleep."

"You're helping me out in the barn."

"Why right now?"

"Because you're grounded and it's your turn to get up early and help."

I groan. He carries me into my room and puts me on my bed. I curl up in a ball while he gets clothes out of my dresser for me. "Sit up." He sits down on my bed and pats my back.

"Go away Brian!" He sits me up and starts to take my pajama shirt off. I push him away and yell, "no don't! I'm up! I'm up!"

"I'll be waiting out here," he says as he goes out the door. "Hurry up."

I whine and take my pajamas off. I hate getting up early! I wish I wasn't grounded! I get dressed and put my boots on. "I'm dressed," I tell Brian as I walk out of my room. We walk downstairs together and he stops at the front door to take my jacket off the hook and gives it to me. Then he gets his and puts it on.

We walk outside and it's cold. It's not dark out, but the sun isn't up all the way yet. I can see Adam and Crane already up and out with the cows. My brothers are always up this early. I think. I follow Brian as he walks out to the barn and then I slow down. I haven't been out to the barn since Evan and Ford scared me. It looks scary now. Brian keeps walking and he doesn't realize I'm slowing up behind him.

"Brian wait!" I stop walking and wait for him to turn around.

"What?! Come on! We have work to do!"

"I forgot something!"

"Hurry up and get it and meet me out in the barn!"

I run back to the house and once I'm inside I run up to my room. I can't go in the barn. I just can't! I sit on my bed to think. What am I going to do? I can't tell Brian I'm afraid to go in the barn, but he's gonna be mad if I don't come back out. I'm gonna have to hide somewhere. I look around my room. I can't hide in here. I can't hide in the house either. That's the first place he'll look. I'm going to have to find somewhere outside.

* * *

As I walk along the river I pick up rocks and throw them into the water. The sun is up now. I wish Guthrie was here with me. He'd understand. I don't know how long I've been out here but I'm sure Brian knows I'm gone by now. I find my favorite rock to sit on. It's up higher than most of the rocks and I can see the river and our pasture from here. That way I can see if someone's coming. And someone is. I think it's Adam.

I get down from the rock and walk a little further down the river to a place where I can hide. I can't _really_ hide, but I can make it harder for someone to find me. I find a good spot that's sort of behind some rocks, but still along the river. I sit down and find lots of rocks that I can throw into the river. I'm not gonna run away from Adam. I'm just gonna sit here and throw rocks in the river. I hear Adam's horse getting closer.

"Hey! Get over here!" Adam yells from his horse.

I don't even look up. I just keep throwing rocks in the river. I hear him get off his horse and walk over to me.

"Heidi? What are you doing out here?" When I don't answer he says, "hey, I'm talking to you. Look at me." I look up and he says, "you're supposed to be helping Brian in the barn. Why are you out here?"

I look back down. I don't know how to answer that. How do I tell him I'm afraid of the barn when it's the daytime? My eyes start to water.

"Why aren't you helping Brian?" The only thing I can think of doing is shrugging my shoulders so he says, "look at me." I look up at him. "What's wrong Heidi? Why are you crying?" He crouches down next to me and puts his hand on my back.

"I can't tell you," I say quietly.

"Why not?"

"I just can't."

"Heidi, you know if something's wrong you can talk to me."

I don't know what to say to that either. I want to tell him I'm afraid of the barn but he'll probably think I'm crazy for being afraid of it in the daytime.

"I'm being really patient with you right now," he says. "But if you don't tell me what's going on soon I'm going to start getting mad."

I keep throwing rocks in the river.

"Stop throwing rocks and look at me!" He lifts my chin up and says, "what is going on?!" I start to cry hard and he says, "what's wrong? I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong." He lifts me up and hugs me and I cry on his shoulder.

"I can't tell you." He hugs me for a little while longer and then he lets go and stands up.

"Then let's go. I don't know what else to do except take you back to the barn." He starts walking to his horse but I don't move. When he turns around he says, "come on Heidi! I'm tired of this! If you don't want to talk, I don't care. Get over here! I've got work to do!"

That makes me start crying again. He walks back over and picks me up and hugs me. "Ok. It's ok," he says quietly while rubbing my back. "Sh. Whatever it is Heidi, it's going to be ok. Just please tell me what it is so I can help you."

I whisper in his ear, "please don't make me go in the barn."

"Why not?" I don't answer him. "Why not, Heidi? Why don't you want to...go...in...the...barn...," he moves me so he can look at my face when he asks, "are you afraid of the barn? Is that what's wrong? Are you afraid to go in the barn?"

I look at him and nod my head.

"God dammit!" He looks really mad when he says that.

I push away from him and try to get down. "Are you mad at me?" I ask.

"No Heidi. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at your brothers." He hugs me really tight. "I can understand why you'd be afraid of the barn."

"Even though it's the daytime?"

"Yes. I'm sorry you're so afraid." He moves me again so he can see my face. "I'm glad you told me." He smiles at me.

I smile back and say, "well, I didn't really tell you. You kind of guessed it."

"True. But Heidi, I want you to be able to tell me when something's wrong. You didn't have to come out here and hide. Why _did_ you come out here? Why didn't you just tell Brian?"

"I was afraid to. That's why I couldn't tell you either, it's because I was afraid. You might make fun of me for being afraid of the barn in the daytime."

"Now you look at me and listen carefully." I look at him and his face looks serious and he talks in his serious voice. "I would never make fun of you for being afraid of the barn. Neither would Brian. We're your family and we love you and we would never do something like that." He pauses like he's waiting for me to say something so I nod my head. Then he starts talking agin.

"But, because we're family and we love you, you need to tell us what's wrong instead of running away and hiding from us. We're here to help you and we can only do that if you talk to us. Ok?"

"Ok."

"Good!" He smiles at me and says, "let's go back to the house and tell Brian what happened so he stops worrying about you, and then we'll wake up Evan and Ford and tell _them_ you're afraid of the barn."

* * *

It's still early in the morning and the boys are still sleeping when we walk in the front door. Evan and Ford are not happy about being woken up.

"Come on Adam. Why do we have to get up so early?" Evan complains. As I'm standing behind Adam I peek around him and wonder if Evan and Ford are gonna be mad at me.

"Get up and get dressed," Adam says as he lightly kicks their feet.

"It's Sunday," Ford says.

"I've already been up for almost two hours now. So get up and get dressed," Adam tells them. Then he looks down at me and says, "let's go see what Hannah's making for breakfast."

I follow him into the kitchen and he walks over to Hannah and gives her a hug and a kiss. I think she's making cinnamon rolls. Brian is in here too. He's sitting at the table drinking coffee. When he sees me he looks at me with a mad look on his face.

"Where have _you_ been?" He asks.

The only thing I can do is stare at him. I'm afraid to tell to him.

"Heidi, go ahead and tell Brian," Adam says. "He won't be mad."

"He looks mad," I say quietly.

"What do you need to tell me?" Brian asks. I look at him from the other side of the table and stare at him. "What is it? I was waiting out in the barn for you. How come you never came out? Where'd you go?"

I look at Adam and he comes over and sits down at the table next to where I'm standing. "Go ahead Heidi, it's ok," he says.

I look at Brian and say, "I'm afraid to go in the barn."

Brian looks like he doesn't understand. "Why?"

"Think about it," Adam tells him.

Brian looks at Adam and then at me and then back at Adam and shakes his head. When I look up at Adam he's mouthing something to Brian.

"Oh right." Brian looks at me and says, "you could've told me that Heidi. I'm not mad at you. Well, I'm a little mad that you never came back."

"Sorry. The barn looked really scary and I was afraid to tell you."

Brian gets up and says, "why don't we go out there together and see what's so scary."

I smile at him and Evan and Ford come walking in.

"We're dressed," Evan says. "Why'd we have to get up?"

"Heidi's afraid to go in the barn. Brian has some chores for her to do, so you guys need to go out there with her and show her there's nothing to be afraid of. You can help her with her chores while you're out there too."

Ford looks down at me and says, "I'm sorry Heidi."

I look at Evan and he looks a little confused and says, "it's the daytime. Why are you afraid of the barn now?"

"Evan, can I speak to you out on the porch?" Adam says as he nods his head towards the back door telling Evan to go outside. Evan goes out and Adam follows him. As soon as the door shuts the yelling starts.

"Why do you _think_ she's afraid of the barn?! You scared the living daylights out of those kids!"

"Ok! Ok! I'm sorry Adam! It's just, are you sure she's not just saying that to get out of doing chores?!"

That makes me feel sad.

"What?!" Adam yells. "She was afraid to tell us! She went and hid out by the river! I don't think you realize how bad you scared her!"

"Ok! Sorry! I'll do her chores!"

"Goddamnit Evan!"

Ford covers my ears with his hands so I look up at him and say, "he already said that in front of me this morning. I think he's still mad at you guys," I tell him.

"I think you're right," Brian says.

I can hear Adam still yelling. "You're not seeing how serious this is! I didn't wake you up to _do_ her chores! I woke you up so you can help her see the barn isn't scary! You're gonna go out there with her and fix this!"

Hannah walks over to the back door and says, "I think I'll just go see if Adam needs a little help with Evan."

I look at Brian and say, "I'm not going out to the barn with him! He's mad at me!"

"No he's not. I'm going out there too. Hop up," he says and he catches me as I jump up so he can carry me.

The yelling has stopped now and I think they're talking. After a few minutes Hannah comes back inside and goes back to making cinnamon rolls. Then Adam and Evan come back in. Evan doesn't look very happy.

"Let's go," Brian says and we all go out to the barn.

* * *

As we get closer to the barn my stomach starts to hurt. "Brian, I'm afraid to go in there. My stomach hurts."

He's still carrying me and he stops walking and so do Evan and Ford. "What are you afraid of?" Brian asks.

"I'm afraid of the ax man that's in there."

Evan says, "Heidi, I told you, that was just me."

"It didn't look like you."

He sighs. "Well it was. I'm sorry I scared you like that. I guess we took it too far."

Brian asks me, "how do you want to go in there? Should we go in slowly, or do you want to go in fast and get it over with?"

"I don't want to go in at all."

"Let's go slow."

We walk slowly towards the barn and with each step I hold on to Brian tighter. "There's nothing to be scared of," he says quietly.

The barn door is already open so I can see inside. It doesn't look that scary now. We walk in and Ford says, "how do you feel."

"Ok, I think. It doesn't look that scary now. I don't think I want to be in here by myself, but it looks like our normal barn.

"That's because it is," Evan says. "I told you there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Do you want to get down now?" Brian asks.

"Ok." He sets me down and I look around. It's not scary at all. Then I see Lucy in her stall and she's staring right at me. I feel a little afraid as I slowly walk up to her. "Hi Lucy." I reach up and pet her. Ford comes up next to me.

"I'm sorry I scared you by making Lucy talk."

"Show me how you did it."

Ford talks in a really high pitched girl voice and pretends to be Lucy, "hi Heidi, I'm really sorry Ford scared you. I really can't talk."

I look up at him and laugh.

"See?" He says.

I nod my head and smile at him.

"Let's finish the work in here so we can go in and have breakfast," Brian says. "Ford and I will take care of the horses, Evan, you and Heidi straighten up the tack room."

Yeah! That's an easy job! But, I'm not sure about working with Evan. I think he's still mad at me. We go in the tack room and get busy. We work in silence which is unusual for us. I don't like it so I finally say something.

"Evan, are you mad at me?" I stop working and look at him when I say that. He stops and looks at me too.

"I don't know."

"Are you mad I got lost yesterday?"

He thinks about that and says, "kind of. You really scared me. I thought something bad had happened to you guys. I didn't know if the boys could swim or not, and I thought, what if they fell in and you went in to save them and you all drowned. Your fishing poles were all lined up like you were still fishing, and I couldn't imagine where you might be. All kinds of bad things kept popping up in my mind."

I never really thought about that. "I'm sorry Evan. I never thought you would think something bad would happen. I just thought you would think we wandered off."

"Wandering off is bad too Heidi. Look what happened. You wandered off and you're very lucky we found you. You know the woods can be a dangerous place. I was so worried about you. But Heidi, I'm mad at myself too. If I hadn't scared you, you wouldn't have tried to scare me and wandered off like that."

I look up at Evan and my eyes start to water. "Evan? You really scared me a lot."

"I know. I'm sorry, please don't cry. I didn't think about how much I was going to scare you when I did it. I just kept thinking about how funny it was."

"Does Adam tell you to think before you do stuff?" I ask him. "'Cause he tells _me_ that all the time."

"Yes, he tells me that _all_ the time too. I think he tells all of us that." He smiles at me and I give him a hug. He picks me up and hugs me back and says, "I'm sorry Heidi. I'm sorry I was so rude to you last night too."

"Me too," I tell him. "I'm sorry I scared you yesterday."

"What'd you say we don't do that anymore?" He bounces me up higher on his hip and I laugh.

"Ok, but I'm not making any promises!"

He laughs and drops me so I'm hanging upside down and he holds me by my legs. He shakes me while I laugh until Brian yells at us to get back to work. I'm glad Evan isn't mad at me anymore. I hate it when my brothers are mad at me. We hurry up and finish in the tack room so we can go inside and have Hannah's cinnamon rolls.

* * *

"When are they gonna go home?" I whine at Hannah. Guthrie and I have to help her with the dishes since we're grounded. Caleb and Josh bugged me all through breakfast. They complained about everything! They didn't like the cinnamon rolls, the eggs were to runny, the orange juice had too much pulp. They just went on and on and on! I think they were even getting on Hannah's nerves. And it takes a lot to do that.

"They're parents are coming to pick them up tonight," she tells me.

"Before or after dinner?" Guthrie asks.

"After," she says.

"What?! We have two more meals with those kids?!" I complain.

"They're not that bad," Hannah says.

"Then how come your face doesn't look happy either?" I ask. "Are you wishing you didn't invite them to stay over now?"

She ignores me and Guthrie asks, "what are we gonna do today?"

"We don't have any plans. Why don't you and Heidi think of something fun to do with the boys."

"Do we have to?" I ask.

"No, but if you don't think of something, you'll be sitting in the living room doing nothing."

"Why?" I ask.

Guthrie answers that question. "She's saying if we want to do something today, it has to be with Josh and Caleb."

"Why can't _you_ play with them today, Hannah?" She looks at me kind of funny when I say that.

"Why don't you ask them what they want to do," she suggests.

"Because I'm afraid of what they're gonna say," Guthrie says.

"Yeah, they'll probably want to be mean to our animals," I tell her.

"Well, I'm sure you guys will think of something," Hannah says. "I'll finish these last few dishes while you guys go put away the sleeping bags."

We put our dish towels down and go into the living room. Caleb and Josh are just coming downstairs from getting dressed. Guthrie and I start rolling the bags up.

"What do you guys want to do today?" Guthrie asks them.

"Think of something fun to do," I tell them as I start to roll up the sleeping bag Josh used. There's a lump in it so I unroll it and take out his teddy bear.

"Hey that's mine!" He yells.

He sounds mad and that kind of shocks me because it's not like I was going to keep it. But that does give me an idea. "Guthrie! Catch!" I yell as I throw him the bear. He smiles and catches it. When Josh runs over to Guthrie, Guthrie throws it back to me. Josh doesn't like that, but Caleb does.

"Throw it to me!" Caleb yells, so I do and we start playing keep-away. I love being able to run around inside our house. Lots of times when I go to a friend's house they can't run inside, but here I can. Guthrie, Caleb and I take turns throwing the bear to each other while we laugh and run around the room. Josh isn't having fun though, because now he starts to cry.

"Ok, we'll give it back," Caleb tells him, but when Josh comes to get it he throws it to me instead. I laugh as Josh runs at me and when he gets close to me I throw it to Guthrie. Josh stops and punches me right in the mouth.

The room is quiet now. I wipe my mouth and look at the blood on my hand and then I look at Josh. "What'd you do that for?!" Guthrie runs up to me and holds me back from Josh.

"Don't do it Heidi," he whispers in my ear. "Remember, he's seven."

I think about that as I glare at him. I want to punch him back so bad!

"What's going on in here?" Hannah asks. When she looks at me she hurries over and kneels in front of me and lifts my chin up. "What happened?"

"Josh punched her," Guthrie says.

"Josh, did you do this?"

"She wouldn't give me my bear back!"

"We were playing keep-away with it," Guthrie tells her.

Hannah looks at Josh and says, "go sit in that chair over there," and she points to the big comfy chair. "Heidi, let's go get that cleaned up." She takes my hand and tries to lead me towards the kitchen, but I break away from her.

"I'm fine Hannah. It's just a little bloody lip."

"We should put some ice on it," she says.

I glare at Josh and say, "no, I don't want any ice. It's no big deal! Just leave me alone." I walk back over to the sleeping bags we're supposed to be rolling up and sit down on the floor. Hannah walks over to Josh and starts talking to him. I don't really listen because I'm too busy thinking about how I want to punch him so bad. Guthrie sits down next to me and starts rolling up a sleeping bag.

"Wow, I can't believe you didn't punch him, Heidi," he whispers.

"I still want to, and I might do it later," I tell him.

"You shouldn't. You'll probably get grounded for another week."

"Right now I really don't care." I look up and see Hannah bringing Josh over to me.

"Heidi, Josh has something he wants to say to you," Hannah says.

I glare at Josh as he says, "I'm sorry for hitting you." He's glaring at me too.

"Heidi do you have something you want to say to Josh?"

"No." I look up at Hannah because I don't know what she wants me to say.

"How about you're sorry for not giving him his bear back?"

I glare at _her_ now. "We were playing a game!"

"I don't think Josh was," she says.

"Yes he was! Nobody likes to be in the middle!"

"You need to say you're sorry," she says in a serious voice.

"Do _they_ have to say they're sorry too?" I ask while looking at Caleb and Guthrie.

"Yes, you all do."

"Sorry," I say.

"For?" Hannah says.

"For not giving you your bear." I'm still glaring at him and he's doing the same to me so I say, "why'd you punch me and not them too? They didn't give you your stupid bear back either! You know you're not supposed to punch a girl, right?!"

"Heidi, would you go wait for me in the kitchen please," Hannah says.

I fold my arms across my chest and ask, "why?"

"Because I told you to. Go wait in there for me now please."

I get up and sigh and stomp into the kitchen. When I'm in there I sit on a chair and wait. My mouth hurts a little and I can tell I have a fat lip. When Hannah walks in she goes right to the fridge and gets some ice out of the freezer. She gets a small towel and wraps the ice up in it and brings it over to me.

"Here. Hold this on your lip. Heidi, I know you're mad right now, but I want you to know I'm really proud of you for not hitting Josh back."

I look up at her while I press the ice to my lip. "You are?"

"Yes. I know how hard that was for you."

"I still want to punch him," I tell her.

"I hope you don't. In fact, I'm sure you won't."

I glare at her and say, "you're just saying that because you don't want me to hit him."

She smiles at me and says, "why don't you take the ice and go sit out on the porch so you're away from the boys for a while."

"Like a punishment?"

"No. If you want, you can go back in there and help them clean up the room instead. I just thought maybe you might want a little break from them for a few minutes."

I stand up and go out the back door and walk around the porch to the front steps. I walk down them and sit on the bottom step and hold the ice to my lip. I can't wait for these dumb boys to go home! I've only been sitting out here for a minute when I hear the front door open. I look back and see Caleb and Josh coming out.

"What are you doing out here?" Caleb asks. I ignore him. They both walk down the steps and sit near me.

"How come you guys aren't helping Guthrie clean up?" I ask.

"Why should we?"

"Hannah's not making you help?"

"No, she's talking on the phone," Caleb says. "How come she's not out here holding the ice on your lip?"

"What?" I'm confused because I think he's joking. When I realize he's not I say, "because I'm not four!"

"Our mom holds the ice for us," Josh says.

Man I wish these boys would go away!

"I guess Hannah's not holding the ice for you because she's not your mom," Caleb says. "My mom loves us so she helps us when we're hurt."

"Who do you think got me the ice?!" I yell.

"Yeah, but if she really loved you, she'd be out here asking you if you were ok," Caleb says.

"Hannah loves me," I tell him.

"But she's not your mom," Josh says.

"So?"

"So, she doesn't really love you as much as a mom would. How come you don't have a real mom?"

"Or a dad?"

I'm getting madder. "Because they're dead! They died when I was a baby!" I yell. "Adam's my dad."

"No he's not! He's your brother!" Josh says and he laughs.

"He takes care of me like a dad, so he's my dad!" I'm so ready to punch him!

"No he's not! A brother can't be your dad!"

"You'd better shut up!" I yell.

"So you have seven brothers, does that mean you have seven dads?" Caleb says and him and Josh laugh.

"Leave me alone!"

"Hey Heidi, why'd your mom and dad have so many kids? Is it because they wanted a girl?!" Josh asks.

Then Caleb says, "yeah, they kept having baby after baby wanting a girl and then when they finally had a girl they died!"

Josh thinks that's hilarious, but that's it for me. That's all I can take. I am so mad all I can think about is punching them, but it's two against one and Josh has a mean punch. I'll go for him first. I lean over really fast and punch Josh right in the stomach as hard as I can while he's laughing. He's not laughing now!

"Ow!"

"Hey! That's my brother!"

Caleb stands up and starts to hit me, but I'm ready for it. My brothers taught me how to fight and I'm pretty good at it. When he goes to punch me I kick him where it counts. He falls to the ground in pain. That's one down. Josh is punching me hard on my arm now and then he tries wrestling me to the ground. He's pretty strong for a seven-year old. When he gets me on the ground he sits on top of me and I punch his nose and then he punches my nose. His nose is bleeding and when I try to get up he grabs my shirt and it tears as I push him off me. Now Caleb is up and he pulls me away from Josh and I jab him in the stomach with my elbow so he lets go. Josh is back and I rush at him and as I kick him where it counts he shoves me really hard into Caleb and our heads bang together before we both fall on the ground. That hurt!

We're all laying on the ground now. Josh and Caleb are both crying and I'm trying really hard not to, but my head hurts so bad. I look around and I can't believe none of my brothers are around. All three of us sit up and we're all breathing hard. Now I start to cry.

"I'm telling on you!" Josh yells.

I glare at him.

"Did you hear me?! I said I'm telling on you!"

"Go ahead!" I yell and I stand up and start walking towards the barn.

"Where are you going?!" They yell after me.

I turn around and yell back, "as far away from you guys that I can get! I hate you!"

I better not get in trouble for this! Aw, who am I kidding? Of course I'm gonna get in trouble for this. Fighting isn't ok with Adam.


	8. Chapter 8

When I get to the barn I walk over to the ladder and climb up to the loft. I scoot a bale of hay over to the window and sit on it. I just want to cry. My face hurts, my head hurts and my t-shirt is ripped at the collar. I'm surprised no one was around to break the fight up. I look out the window to the pasture. I think some of my brothers are fixing a fence somewhere and I don't know where the rest are. I'm not sitting here long when I hear someone come into the barn and call my name.

"Heidi!" Josh yells. "Heidi, where are you?!"

Then I hear Caleb yell, "Heidi, you're _mommy_ wants you!" And they both start laughing.

"Where are you?!" They yell.

"I bet she's up there," Josh says.

Great, now they're gonna come up here! Sure enough I hear them on the ladder. I run to the top of it and yell down, "don't come up here!"

"We can come up there if we want to!" Caleb yells.

"No you can't! Get down!" I yell as I sit on the top of the ladder blocking the way. "If you come up here I'm gonna kick you off the ladder! I'll kick you so hard you'll fall down and crack your head open!"

"You can't do that!" Josh yells and they keep climbing.

He's right. I can't and I won't do that. I was just hoping they would think I would do that and it would scare them. I move out of the way and go back to sitting on the bale of hay in front of the window. Josh is holding ice on his nose and he has a bunch of band-aids on his arms. Oh brother! Caleb is holding ice on his head. "I'm surprised you can climb up here while carrying ice."

When they get up here they're both excited to be here.

"Wow! This is fun!" Josh says. They both come over to the window and look down. "Look how high we are!"

"I bet you could spread a whole bunch of hay down there and jump from here!" Caleb says.

These are stupid boys! Guthrie and I jumped from here once when there was snow on the ground, and it hurt when we landed even with the snow. Hay won't do any good.

"We should do that!" Josh yells.

"I wouldn't if I were you," I tell them. "Now why don't you go and just leave me alone."

"No! We can be up here. Besides, you're _mommy_ told us to come get you," they tease. "She wants to talk to you about how you beat us up!" They both smile at me.

"What?! I didn't beat you up! And if you call Hannah my _mommy_ one more time I 'will' beat you up!"

"We told her you beat us up and she's mad!"

"No she's not! You guys are lying! Hannah never really gets mad."

"She's mad at you. She told us to come get you."

"I don't believe you for a second! Hannah wouldn't send _you guys_ to get me, she'd send Guthrie or she'd come in here and get me herself! She knows I hate you!"

"Ok, don't believe us, but she really did tell us to come get you," Caleb says.

I don't know if I believe him or not. If Hannah did tell them to come get me, she must be mad at me. Now I don't know if I should go into the house or go somewhere else where these boys can't bug me. I get up and walk over to the ladder.

"Where are you going?" Caleb asks me. "Are you going to talk to your _mommy_?" He laughs.

"I told you not to call her that anymore!" I shove him so he falls on the loft floor and then I race to the ladder and climb down as fast as I can.

"I'm telling on you!" Caleb yells. They're both climbing down the ladder now too. I jump down the last few rungs and put my hands on the ground to keep me from falling. I run out of the barn and around the side of it to the back. I find some barrels back there and I hide behind them. I hope they don't find me!

"Heidi!" They yell. I sit down and curl up in a little ball. They keep yelling my name and it sounds like they're walking further away. Good. I stand up and peek around the barrels. I don't see them so I sneak around to the side of the barn and watch them walk towards the house. I really hate those boys! I walk back to the back of the barn and go in the back door. I'll go back up to the loft because if they do come looking for me again, they won't think I'm up here. I climb the ladder and go back to the hay bale by the window.

* * *

"Heidi are you up here?" I hear Guthrie say.

I open my eyes and look around. I must have fallen asleep. Guthrie sticks his head up to look in the loft.

"You are up here. Oh my gosh! Your face!"

"What?" I feel my face and I know I have a fat lip, but I don't know what else.

"You're eye looks swollen and it's purple." He finishes climbing the ladder and sits next to me. "You have dried blood around your nose and your mouth."

"I know. I have a fat lip."

"Hannah sent me out here to get you. She's mad. Why'd you beat them up?"

"I didn't beat them up!"

"Josh told Hannah you walked up to him and punched him in the nose. Caleb said he saw you do it too."

"Did they tell Hannah what they were saying to me before I punched him?" I ask.

"No. They just said you punched him for no reason and when Caleb tried to protect Josh from you, you beat Caleb up too."

"What a bunch of liars!" I think about what happened. Did I beat them up? Or did they beat me up? I guess I did punch Josh first. Oh man! I'm gonna get in so much trouble for this! I start to cry.

"What happened Heidi? What did they do to you?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter anyway, I'm still gonna get in trouble for fighting."

Guthrie puts his arm around me. "It'll be ok Heidi. I bet you just get grounded for another week."

All I can do is cry. "I hope you're right."

"Heidi, Hannah also sent me to get you because it's almost lunchtime. She wants to see if you need to get cleaned up before lunch, and it looks like you do."

"Guthrie, I'm not going in there."

"Do you want me to go tell her that?"

"No. I don't care. Oh, I don't know." I cover my face with my hands. "Ow!" Touching my nose hurts.

"You should have Hannah look at your face. It's pretty messed up. Your shirt is ripped too."

I sigh and then start crying again. "What am I gonna do Guthrie?"

He hugs me and says, "I guess just go inside and get it over with. It's just Hannah that's in the house."

"But won't everyone come to eat lunch?"

"I don't know. It's Sunday so they might."

I hear the jeep driving up to the barn so I look out the window and Crane, Daniel, Evan, and Ford are in the jeep driving across the pasture over to the back of the barn. They must've been the ones out fixing the fence.

"Guthrie, I'm gonna hide up here for a while."

"I can go back inside and tell Hannah I couldn't find you."

"Do you think she'll believe you?"

"Probably not, but it's worth a try." He stands up and walks over to the ladder. "Are you sure you don't want to come tell Hannah what happened?"

I shake my head no and he climbs down the ladder.

"Hey Guthrie, whatcha doing up there?" Crane asks.

"Nothing."

"How come you and Heidi didn't have to do any work?" Evan asks. "You guys are grounded too."

"We had to play with Josh and Caleb," Guthrie tells him.

"That's a job I would _not_ want to have!" Ford says.

"Yeah. I'd rather fix a hundred fences than have to do that!" Evan says.

I smile at that. Crane says, "aw come on guys, they can't be that bad."

"Then you should play with them. They're mean!" Guthrie says.

"They're only here for the rest of today and then they're gone," Daniel says. "I think even Hannah wants them to go home after how rude they were at breakfast this morning."

"Speaking of Hannah, let's go see what's for lunch."

Now I'm hungry. I hear them leave and I go back to staring out the window. Brian and Adam are riding their horses across the pasture. It's only a matter of time now before they find out what I did. Adam's going to be so disappointed. I listen to them put their horses away.

"All I can say is, those little boys better keep they're mouths shut during lunch or _I'm_ gonna knock some sense into them!" Brian says.

"If they act like they did this morning, I'm going to make them leave the table," Adam says. "I don't know how two little kids can be so rude."

"Even Heidi's not as rude as those little boys. Heck, she's an angel compared to them!"

I smile at that until Adam says, "I wouldn't go _that_ far."

"You know what I'm surprised about?" Brian says. "I'm surprised Heidi hasn't punched one of them yet!"

"Me too! Well, I guess she pushed one of them last night, but that's nothing compared to what I thought she might do."

I feel sad now because Adam's gonna be so disappointed.

"I'm surprised Guthrie hasn't hit one of them yet, either," Brian says.

"I know. I feel bad making Heidi and Guthrie play with them, but I guess it's only for one more night."

They're starting to walk away now so it's getting harder to hear them. The last thing I hear is Adam say, "I think I'm gonna tell those parents of theirs how rude these little boys really are."

I hope he does. I sigh and look out the window again. It's only a matter of time now before he finds out what I did.

* * *

"Heidi!"

I sigh. Here we go. Adam sounds mad and I can hear him yelling my name over by the house.

"Heidi!" He's getting closer.

"Heidi!" He must be walking really fast because he's at the barn now.

"Heidi! I know you're up in the loft! Get down here!"

I'm not gonna say a word. How does he know I'm up here? He must've read my mind.

"Crane said he saw Guthrie coming down from the loft a little while ago so I know you're up there! Get down here now!" When I don't say anything he yells, "don't make me climb up there!"

I run to the ladder and look down at him.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do!" He yells when he sees me. "Get down here! I can't believe you beat up those little boys!"

I start crying.

"Save your tears for later and get down here NOW!"

"I don't want to!" I cry. "You're mad at me! I'm scared of you!"

"Don't pull that on me! Get down here now!"

"But you don't understand, Adam. I didn't...,"

"Save it! I don't want to hear your excuses right now! I want you to get your butt down here NOW!"

"This isn't fair!" I yell. "You don't even know what happened! Those boys are lying!"

"That's funny, because that's what you told me last night! Remember, when you tried to tell me they were lying about how you guys got lost?! Turns out they weren't lying! Now you're trying to tell me the same lie today!"

"But...," I don't know what else to say. If Adam doesn't believe me it doesn't even matter what I say. "Adam, you don't understand! You haven't even heard my side of the story yet!"

"I don't need to hear your side! All I needed to do was look at their faces! You beat them up pretty good!"

I guess he can't see my face from where he's standing. I must be in a shadow. Maybe if he sees it he'll let me explain. I inch my way down the ladder a little ways and then stop and turn around. I hope he can see my face now. I watch him pace back and forth saying something quietly under his breath.

"Adam?" I say quietly.

He stops pacing and looks up at me. I can tell he sees my face now because he looks shocked. "What happened?! Come down here and let me look at your face."

I'm not sure I want to. He looked and sounded pretty mad just a second ago.

"Heidi, come down," he says calmly so I slowly climb down and stay by the bottom of the ladder. He walks over to me and lifts up my chin. "What happened?" He looks at me like he's expecting me to say something, but I'm not sure what to say. He crouches down in front of me and wipes a tear away with his thumb. "You're a mess. What happened? Did one of those boys hit you?"

I nod my head and start crying and Adam hugs me. "I'm sorry Adam. I shouldn't have hit them, but they were saying so many mean things I just couldn't take it anymore!"

Adam holds me out in front of him now and says, "why don't you tell me what happened."

"They were being mean...,"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I was sitting on the porch steps because..., wait! Adam, Josh hit me. When we were inside he hit me and I didn't hit him back. He gave me a fat lip and Hannah made me go outside with some ice to put on it."

"I know, she told me that. She said you, Guthrie, and Caleb were playing keep-away and Josh didn't like that so he punched you." I nod my head. "She also said, she told you she was proud of you for not hitting him back, and then she was very shocked to hear you beat Josh and Caleb up when they came running into the house to tell her. They said they didn't fight back, but looking at your face, I'd say they were lying. They said you just started punching them."

I shake my head no but then I nod and I don't know what to say.

"No you didn't punch them, or yes you did?"

"Adam, I'm sorry." I cry. "They were saying really mean things and I punched Josh and then I kicked Caleb and then we had a fight. Nobody was around to stop us so we kept on fighting until we all got hurt." I pause for a while and stare at him. He's looking at me with his serious face. I take a deep breath and say, "Adam, I'm sorry. I know you don't like it went I fight and I'm sorry I disappointed you."

He smiles a little bit and that surprises me.

"Why are you smiling?" I ask.

"Because I think that's the first time you've told me the truth about a fight right off the bat, and the first time you've been sorry for doing it. Usually you're mad after a fight and don't feel bad about hurting the other person."

I look down at the ground when he says that last part.

"What?" He asks.

I keep looking at the ground when I say, "I don't really feel bad about hurting them right now. I'm just sorry I disappointed you."

Adam lifts my chin up and says, "thank you for being honest. Heidi, I'm sorry these boys have been difficult for you. What were they saying to you that made you so mad?"

I look at him and say quietly, "I don't want to tell you."

"Why?"

"I just don't. They said really mean things."

"I'd like you to tell me what they said."

I shake my head no, "I don't want to." My eyes start to water and I say, "please don't make me say."

He sighs and says, "maybe you'll tell me later. Let's go to the house now and get you cleaned up." He touches the collar on my shirt where it's torn and shakes his head. Then he stands up and I hug him. He puts his hand on top of my head and gently smooths my hair back.

"I'm sorry." I look up at him. "Is Hannah mad at me?"

"She won't be when she finds out what really happened."

"Are you mad at me?"

Adam kneels down in front of me. "No, I'm not mad at you. But you know I don't like fighting so I'm disappointed about that and we'll talk about that later because I can't let you get away with that. But listen to me Heidi, I mean it when I say I'm proud of you for telling me the truth right away." He stands up and picks me up. "We've got to get some ice on that lip of yours and clean the blood off your nose. They got you good. You've even got a nasty black eye showing up."

"Josh has a mean punch," I tell him.

"So do you," Adam says and we smile at each other. He carries me out of the barn and we start walking towards the house and Daniel comes running out of the house and up to us.

"Adam, Hannah just got of the phone with Josh and Caleb's mom. They can't pick up the boys tonight," Daniel says.

"What?! Why the hell not?!"

"No! Adam they can't stay here another night!" I cry.

Adam passes me off to Daniel, "here, take your sister." Then he starts walking as fast as he can to the house with me and Daniel following just as fast.

* * *

Hannah and Adam are out on the front porch talking. Well, Hannah's talking and Adam is yelling. "If they're staying here another night I'm setting some ground rules! They're going to eat what you make without complaining or they're not going to eat at all! They're gonna stop bugging Guthrie and Heidi and they're gonna stop hurting our animals!"

Adam is pacing now and Hannah is trying to get him to stop. "I'm sorry Adam," she says.

He stops pacing and she hugs him. "I'm not mad at you Hannah," he says. "These boys have caused a lot of trouble this weekend."

Then they start talking quieter and Guthrie and I can't hear them anymore. We're trying to listen from the window in the living room. Brian and Crane are sitting on the couch talking quietly and Daniel, Evan and Ford are in the kitchen with Caleb and Josh. But they're not in the kitchen for very long.

"I'm hungry," Josh says as he walks into the living room. "When are we gonna have lunch?"

"When Adam and Hannah are done talking," Brian says.

"I wanna eat now. Go tell them to come inside!"

Guthrie and I look at Brian and Crane and they look mad. Brian says, "we'll eat when _everyone_ is ready to eat."

"What are they talking about?" Josh asks.

"You!" I yell. "They're talking about how bad you guys are and you have to stay here for another night!"

"Heidi!" Brian yells. "That's enough!"

"Why do we have to stay another night? Caleb!" Caleb comes running in from the kitchen.

"What?!"

"We have to stay here another night!"

"Why?! I don't want to?"

"We don't want you to either!" Guthrie whispers.

"I know!" I whisper back. I bet all my brothers are thinking the same thing.

"How come our mom and dad aren't picking us up tonight?"

Nobody says anything because they don't know why either. Hannah's only told Adam so far. But I know the perfect answer.

"They're not picking you up tonight because they don't love you!"

"Heidi!" Brian yells. Crane looks mad and Josh and Caleb start crying. Brian gets up and yells at me, "in the kitchen now!"

I cry and run in there with Brian following me. Daniel, Evan and Ford are sitting at the table and when they see me Daniel says, "what happened to your face?"

Brian picks me up and sets me on top of the counter hard. "We're gonna clean this face of yours." He gets a dish rag wet and starts wiping the dried blood off around my nose. He's not doing it gently so I pull my head back and away from him. "Hold still!"

"No! You're hurting me!"

Brian looks at me and says, "why would you say such a mean thing?!"

I don't know what to say to that so I don't say anything.

"What did she say?" Evan asks. When Brian doesn't answer my brothers get up from the table and go into the living room. Brian goes back to wiping blood away from my nose and I try to move my face out of the way.

"Hold still," he says and he grabs my chin and squeezes tight holding my head in place while he wipes at the blood. He's squeezing too hard and it makes me cry more. When he's done he doesn't let go of my chin but instead holds my face up and glares into my eyes. "There is no excuse for saying such a mean thing!" He lets go of my chin and walks over to the fridge to get ice out of the freezer. He brings back a bag of frozen peas. "Hold this on your face. That way it'll cover your eye and your lip."

I take it and jump down from the counter and run out the back door. I decide to sit on the back porch steps since Adam and Hannah are still on the front side of the porch. I can hear what they're saying.

"I don't know what they said to her. She wouldn't tell me. Usually she's quick to say what kids say to make her mad. But I'll tell you what, I'm gonna find out! Those boys are gonna tell me or they'll be spending a whole lot of time indoors for the rest of their stay here!" I hear the front door open so they must be going inside now.

"Hey Adam," Brian says, "Heidi just said the meanest thing to Josh and Caleb."

I guess they're not going inside. It sounds like Brian just came out to tell on me.

"She told them they're parents aren't picking them up tonight because they don't love them."

Hannah gasps and says, "Heidi said that? Why would she say such a thing?"

"I don't know," Brian says. "She's outside on the back porch holding ice to her face. Do you want us to get lunch on the table Hannah? We've got some hungry boys in there. We've also got to get back to work."

"No, I'll come in and do it. Are the boys ok?"

"Crane is talking to them."

"I'm going to go talk to Heidi," Adam says. "I'll be in to eat in a little bit. This won't take long."

Uh-oh! I stand up from the step I'm sitting on and start to make a run for it.

"Hey! Hold it right there missy!" Adam yells at me so I stop and turn around. "Get back over here!"

I slowly walk back to the steps and stand at the bottom of them.

"Brian told me what you said to Josh and Caleb and I'm really disappointed in you! I'm downright mad at you!" I start crying. "Don't pull that crying stuff on me! That was a really mean thing you said and I, for one, can't believe you said it! How would you like it if someone said that to you?!"

That makes me cry harder.

"I'm asking you a question!"

"I wouldn't." I wish I could tell him they said the same kind of thing to me earlier today, but I can't.

"You're darn right you wouldn't! When you're done crying come inside to eat lunch and then after that were gonna have a little talk about being kind!" He turns around and goes inside and I sit down on the step and lay the bag of frozen peas down. Then I cover my face with my hands and cry.

* * *

When I come inside to eat lunch I don't look at anybody. I walk over to my chair with my head down and sit down. I notice Josh and Caleb aren't at the table and I wonder why. I look at Guthrie and mouth, "where are they?"

Guthrie smiles and mouths, "out there." He nods towards the living room.

Then he laughs and I mouth, "what?"

"That's enough," Hannah says. "Eat your lunch."

Guthrie's still laughing quietly and we eat our lunch. I wonder what happened. Everything else seems normal. Everyone's eating and talking like they normally do at lunch. I can't wait to ask Guthrie what happened.

* * *

After we're done eating, Evan, Ford, Guthrie and I have to do the dishes. Adam goes into the living room and I hear him ask the boys if they'd like to come eat now. They say yes and I look at them when they come in and sit down at the table. It looks like they've been crying and they look sad. But they sit down and eat what's on their plate and they don't say a word. I ask Guthrie what happened.

Guthrie whispers, "they wanted the crust cut off their sandwiches and when Hannah started to do it Adam told them if they wanted the crust off they could cut it off themselves. Then they started complaining by saying their mom always cuts it off for them. Adam told them either they do it, or they eat with the crust on, he didn't care which. When they started complaining again Adam told them to leave the kitchen and go sit in the living room."

"He did? Did they do it?"

"Not at first, but when Adam stood up they did. It was pretty funny."

"I wish I could've seen that!"

"Heidi, what did they say to you? I heard Adam tell Hannah they said something mean to you that made you really mad. What did they say."

I look down at the dish I'm drying. I know I can tell Guthrie. I'm just not sure I'm ready yet.

"Get back to work you two!" Evan yells.

"Yeah!" Ford says. "We don't want to be washing dishes all day."

"Why not?" Guthrie asks. "Aren't you just gonna go do more work when you're finished here?"

"He's got a point," Ford says to Evan.

Adam walks in the kitchen and says "Heidi, I want to talk to you." Then he turns to Josh and Caleb and says, "it looks like you two are done eating. Go help with the dishes."

"What?!" Caleb complains. "Our mom never makes us help with the dishes!"

"Yeah," Josh adds. "Our dad says that's women's work!"

We all look at Adam and he says quietly, "well, that explains a lot." I wonder what he means by that. Then he says, "well around here we all help each other out and do our share of the chores. You ate, you can help clean up."

"But,...," Caleb starts to say something but Adam interrupts him.

"But nothing. You're at our house now and those are the rules. Either help with the dishes or you're gonna go out to the barn and help Evan and Ford muck out the stalls."

"What does that mean?"

Guthrie smiles and says, "it means you're gonna clean up the horse poop." Me and Guthrie laugh a little and the boys get up really fast and come help with the dishes.

"Heidi." Adam says. I look at him and my smile fades. Adam walks into the living room so I give Josh my dish towel and follow him in.

* * *

"Sit down," Adam says while pointing to the couch. I sit and Adam sits on the coffee table so he's right in front of me. I hate it when he does that. I'd rather have him stand up and yell at me from far away instead of right here close where he can reach out and touch me. I put my hands in my lap and look down at them.

"Heidi, look at me." I sigh and look up. "That was a very mean thing you said to those boys. I can't believe you said that. I'm really disappointed in you."

"Sorry," I say.

"You're going to apologize to them and...,"

"What! I can't do that! Pease don't make me do that!"

"What's gotten in to you?! Of course you're going to apologize to them!" I start to cry.

"I don't want to!" I yell and I make my hands into fists and punch the couch with them.

"Don't even _think_ about having a temper tantrum right now! If you do that you'll be in room until dinner."

That actually sounds good to me right now. I keep my fists clenched tightly but I don't do anything yet.

The boys come in now so they must be done with the dishes. "Josh, Caleb, Heidi has something she'd like to say to you," Adam tells them. They look at me.

"Sorry," I say.

"For?!" Adam says.

"For telling you your parents didn't love you." I look down at my lap now so they can't see the tears run down my cheeks and also because they're giving me and evil looking smile.

"That made me really sad," Caleb says.

"Me too. You hurt my feelings."

Oh brother! Now I'm mad. I wipe my cheeks and look up at them and glare at them. They're still smiling at me.

"I want all of you to sit down on the couch." Adam gets up and Guthrie sits next to me while Josh and Caleb sit down too. I scoot as close as I can to Guthrie so I'm not touching Caleb. Why do we all have to sit on the same couch. Adam stays standing so we all have to look up at him.

"You four need to get along now because you're going to be playing together this afternoon."

"What?!" Both Guthrie and I shout.

"Can I muck out the stables with Evan and Ford?" I ask.

"Me too?" Guthrie asks.

Adam gives us a funny look. "No."

"Can I go to my room then?" I ask. "I'll stay in there all afternoon. I promise."

"No. Why do you want to do that?"

I don't want to answer that so Adam says, "Caleb, Josh, go wait outside for us." They leave and as soon as the door shuts behind them both Guthrie and I start begging Adam.

"Please don't make us play with them! I'll do anything you want! Please?!" I cry.

"I don't want to play with them either," Guthrie says. "Can't Hannah watch them?"

"Hannah went into town to buy some more milk. With the boys staying an extra day we need more food." He looks at us and says, "I know this weekend has been tough on you guys with these boys, but I really need your help. Why don't you take them to the river and show them how to catch frogs."

"I don't want to!" I yell.

"Well you're gonna," Adam says in his serious voice.

"Come on Heidi," Guthrie says. "Let's just go."

I look at him like he's crazy and then he says quietly under his breath, "I have a plan."

* * *

Guthrie won't tell me what his plan is. He keeps saying he'll tell me once we get to the river. All I know is it better be a good plan. I'd rather do _any_ chore instead of taking these two complaining boys to the river.

It's not _that_ long of a walk to the river, but by the way these two are complaining, you'd think we were making them walk into town.

"Are we almost there? It's too hot. The river sounds like a boring place." They keep going on and on and on. They're driving me nuts! Guthrie knows that because he's holding onto my arm and walking faster than the boys so we're ahead of them.

When we finally get there Josh says, "this is it? What's so fun about this place?"

Guthrie turns to face them and says, "this is the best place in the world!" He sounds really excited to me. Too excited. I give him a funny look and he smiles at me. "This is where me and Heidi play our favorite game!"

"What?!" Josh says excitedly.

That's what I want to know 'cause I have no clue what he's talking about.

"This is the best place to play hide-and-go-seek!"

I glare at Guthrie. "That's your big plan?!" I whisper to him.

"Just wait," he whispers back. Then he says to them, "the way we play is whoever can stay hidden the longest gets a bag of M&M's when we get home."

What the heck is he talking about?

Caleb and Josh jump up and down. "I wanna play! I wanna play!" Josh yells.

"Ok. Here's the rules. Once you find your hiding spot you have to stay there until someone finds you. You can't come out at all. If you do then you get no M&M's. If you can stay in your hiding spot the longest you win!"

"Ok!" They both yell.

This sounds like a dumb plan to me. I don't want to play hide-and-go-seek, but Guthrie seems excited about it.

"Ok," Guthrie says. "Are you ready?" They nod they're heads. "You guys will hide first and me an Heidi will try and find you. Now remember, it has to be a good spot. You can't come out at all or you lose. Heidi and I will start counting. We'll count to a hundred and then come find you." Then Guthrie reminds them, "make sure it's a really good spot because me and Heidi are really good at finding people. One time we found someone in five minutes!" Guthrie goes and sits on a big rock and I sit next to him. He covers his face with his hands and starts counting so I do the same. When we get to a hundred Guthrie yells, "ready or not! Here we come!" We get up off the rock and Guthrie says to me, "now let's ditch 'em!"

I look at him and smile. Now _that's_ a good plan!


	9. Chapter 9

"How long do you think we've been gone?" I ask Guthrie.

"Probably a half hour. Not long enough, that's for sure."

We keep walking up the river throwing rocks in the water. It's been a long time since Guthrie and I have been at the river together. Probably five days. Usually we're here almost every day.

"Come on, let's go see if we caught a turtle!" Guthrie yells and starts running along the river. I follow behind him. I forgot about our turtle trap.

Last weekend we made a little cage by tying sticks together with long pieces of grass. Well, not really grass, tall weed grass. We made a little door the same way and held it up with a stick. Hannah gave us some lettuce to put in it. When the turtle walks in the cage it will knock the stick down and the door will close trapping the turtle inside.

"Here it is!" Guthrie yells.

We run up to it and see it's broken. It's laying flat on it's side like something big walked on top of it.

"I guess something big wanted the lettuce," I say. I feel disappointed. Guthrie and I have been trying to catch a little turtle for a while now. We see them sunbathing on rocks, but since they're close to the water once they see us they fall in and swim away.

"We can fix the cage, or make a bigger, stronger one," Guthrie suggests.

"No. Let's go find some frogs. They're easy to catch."

Guthrie and I play along the river like we usually do. We take our shoes off and roll our pant legs up as high as we can and catch frogs, look for snakes, skip rocks and wade in the cold water looking for special rocks.

* * *

"Heidi! We forgot about Josh and Caleb!" Guthrie yells.

"How long have we been gone for?"

"I don't know." He looks up at the sky. "Probably two hours!"

We've walked in the river for a long time now. My feet are numb. We've got to walk back to where we left our shoes. It takes a while to find them, but once we do we put them on quickly and run to where we left the boys. We went farther than we thought. By the time we get back to where we left the boys they're not hiding anymore. When they see us Caleb starts yelling at us.

"You ditched us!"

"No we didn't!" I yell back. "We couldn't find you! You hid in a really good spot!"

"We've been out here forever!" Josh yells. "I'm thirsty and you guys owe us M&M's!"

"Not really," I say. "You were supposed to stay in your hiding spot and you didn't."

Guthrie whispers, "Heidi, we'd better give them some so they're not mad at us anymore." Then he says to Josh and Caleb, "ok, we'll give you some. Let's go back to the house and get something to drink too."

We all walk back to the house and Guthrie and I keep ahead of the boys so we can't hear them complain about how hot they are, or how thirsty they are, or how we ditched them, and they go on and on! When we reach the house Guthrie and I whisper to each other, "thank god!" Because they finally shut up!

"I want some water," Josh says as he plops himself on the couch. "_And_ my M&M's."

I stare at him. "You're not gonna get any water by sitting on the couch."

"Bring me some," he says.

"No way! If you want some water get up off your butt and get it yourself!" I yell.

Guthrie pulls me into the kitchen and says, "calm down, otherwise he's gonna tell on you."

"He just makes me so mad!"

"I know, me too."

Caleb and Josh come into the kitchen and Guthrie gets four glasses down from the cupboard. Then Guthrie looks for the M&M's.

"I want juice," Caleb says.

I get my glass and take it over to the sink to fill it with water. "Juice is in the fridge," I tell him.

Caleb opens up the refrigerator and says, "I want Coke!"

"Me too!" Josh yells.

"No, you can't have that. Hannah only lets us have that for special occasions," Guthrie says.

"I don't care," Caleb says. "Hannah's not here and I want some. _My_ mom would let us have some."

"Well too bad!" I yell while slamming the refrigerator door shut. "Your mom's not here and Hannah would say no!"

Caleb pushes me out of the way to open the refrigerator again and Guthrie pulls me into the living room.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?!" I yell at him.

"Because they're just gonna get it anyway. If you fight them on this, you're gonna end up punching one of them and you know it. Then you're gonna be in trouble. We told them not to drink it and they didn't listen. Hannah will understand that." Then he whispers, "I can't find the M&M's. I hope Hannah has some."

"Where is Hannah? Shouldn't she be home by now?"

"I don't know."

Caleb and Josh walk in with their glasses full of Coke.

"Where's our M&M's?" They ask.

"Hannah's buying some at the store," Guthrie lies. "Let's go outside and wait for her."

We all four take our drinks and go outside to sit on the porch.

"Where's the grave that you dug up?" Josh asks.

"Huh?" I ask.

"You know, the little girl's grave."

"Oh, it's out back," I tell him.

"Show me."

"Ok, when we're done with our drinks, I'll show you."

"Show us now," Caleb says.

"If you want us to show you, you have to be nice!" Guthrie says. "Finish your drink and then we'll put our glasses in the kitchen."

"Why can't you show us while we drink our drinks?" Josh asks.

"Because we're not allowed to bring our glasses outside. We can only bring them out on the porch."

"Well that's dumb," Caleb says.

I sigh. "Just finish your Coke and then we'll show you."

We finish our drinks and me and Guthrie take the glasses inside and then we take Josh and Caleb around to the back of the house.

We walk out to an open area in the yard and Guthrie says, "the grave is right here."

"It doesn't look like a grave," Josh says.

"Well it is," I tell him.

"Then let's dig it up," Caleb suggests.

Guthrie and I look at each other. We're not supposed to dig here because Adam said he doesn't like us digging for dead bodies. He says it makes my imagination go crazy. I don't know what he means by that, but I've wanted to dig here ever since. Guthrie has too. Guthrie walks over to me and whispers, "we could say they made us do it."

"Ok. That might work. Then we won't get in trouble."

Guthrie says, "let's go to the barn and get some shovels."

* * *

No one was in the barn when we went to get the shovels, which was good. If there were, we'd have to explain what we needed the shovels for. I guess they finished in the barn and are working somewhere else now. We've been digging for about five minutes when Josh starts complaining.

"I'm too tired to dig." He lays his shovel down on the ground and we all stop digging.

"If you're not gonna dig, I'm not gonna dig," I tell him and I lay my shovel down.

"Come on," Guthrie says. "We'll find her bones faster if we all help." Guthrie digs up the bone we found that we think is a little girl's arm bone. My brothers say it's a baby deer bone. "Look!" He says as he holds out the bone for us to see.

That gets Josh and Caleb excited. I'm glad because they're nice when they're excited. We all start digging again.

After a while Guthrie stops and shouts, "hey! What's that?!"

We all look at his shovel and there's something small and white sticking out of the dirt he dug up. I pick it up and yell, "it's a bone!"

"Let me see! Let me see!" Both Caleb and Josh yell.

"Hold on a sec.!"

Guthrie looks at it and says, "I bet it's a finger bone! I bet it's Molly's finger!" I give it to Guthrie and when he's done looking at it, he gives it to Caleb.

"Wow!" He says and then he gives it to Josh. "Let's keep digging!"

We're all excited now. "Maybe we'll find her whole body!" I yell. We dig and dig and dig. We find two more small bones that we think are finger bones.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" We hear Ford ask.

We look over to where his voice is coming from and see him on the back porch steps. Evan is with him and they're drinking water.

"Nothing!" Guthrie yells back.

"Are you digging up graves again?!" Evan asks and him and Ford laugh.

"Maybe!" I yell.

"I thought Adam told you not to do that anymore."

"I don't remember that!" I yell.

"Ok," they yell and they laugh as they walk back into the house.

Guthrie and I look at each other and shrug. "Do you want to stop?" He asks me.

"No way! Are you kidding me?! We found more bones! We 'have' to keep digging now!"

We all four dig. We've got a pretty deep hole dug. It's about as wide and as long as a person. We each have our own spots to dig in and I find the next bone. It's another small finger bone.

Daniel comes walking out to us and says, "what are you guys doing?"

"Digging," I say. None of us stop.

"I don't think you're supposed to be doing that," he says.

"Look Daniel!" Guthrie says. He holds out his hand to show Daniel the bones we found. "They're Molly's fingers!"

Daniel laughs and picks one up. "This isn't a finger bone!"

I throw my shovel down and put my hands on my hips. "Oh yeah! Then what is it!" I yell.

"I don't know. Probably a bird bone."

"No it's not! Birds don't bury themselves!" I yell.

"It's a person's bone," Caleb says.

"Ok you guys, whatever you say," Daniel says and he smiles and walks off while shaking his head.

We're tired from digging so we lay our shovels down and sit around the edges of the hole. I start sifting through the dirt near where I'm sitting. "Hey look!" I yell. I pull out a bone from the dirt and hold it up. It's bigger than the finger bones, but not as big as the arm bone. "What do you think this is?"

"I don't know," Guthrie says. "Maybe it's a hand bone? Or maybe it's a foot bone!"

"Let's keep digging!" Caleb yells and we all four jump up and pick up our shovels and get back to digging.

* * *

"Dinnertime!" Adam yells from the back porch. Guthrie and I turn around to look at him and he's walking over here. "What are you guys doing? I hear you've been digging out here for a while."

Caleb and Josh keep digging and Guthrie and I stare at Adam and drop our shovels. When he gets closer he asks the question again, but Guthrie and I don't answer.

"Are you digging up bodies again?" He asks.

Caleb and Josh don't stop digging and Josh yells out, "yeah! You should see all the bones we found!"

Adam stares at me and Guthrie. "I thought I told you I didn't want you doing that?!"

We just stare at him. Then I say, "_they_ wanted to."

Adam glares at me. "Then how come _you're_ helping them when I told you I didn't want you doing that anymore?"

Guthrie whispers, "don't answer that. Let me do the talking." Then he says to Adam, "we're sorry Adam...," but I interrupt him. Maybe if Adam sees the bones we found, he'll be happy.

"Look!" I hold out the bones for him to see. "It's Molly's finger bones and either her hand or foot bone!" I smile really big at him. He doesn't smile back.

"Put those down, put the shovels back, and come get washed up for dinner," he says. He looks mad when he says that. "We'll talk about this after dinner. Hannah also wants to know who had Coke. There are some empty cans on the counter."

Guthrie and I both say at the same time, "not me."

Caleb and Josh says, "yes they did. They said we could all have some. They said Hannah lets them have Coke whenever they want to."

"That's a lie!" I yell.

"Adam, they're lying!" Guthrie yells.

"No we're not!" They both yell.

Then Adam yells, "put the shovels back and get in the house!"

We pick up our shovels and run to the barn.

* * *

At dinner the boys don't complain about the food which is nice. Hannah said we would talk about the Coke after dinner which is fine with me. She also said she got chocolate ice cream for dessert.

"Caleb! We can put our M&M's on our ice cream!" Josh yells.

"Yeah!"

"What M&M's?" Hannah asks.

"The M&M's you're going to give us for winning the game," Josh says.

Hannah smiles at him and says, "what are you talking about?"

"Guthrie said you were buying M&M's at the store today and you'd give us some," Caleb tells her.

Guthrie and I look at each other. I hope Hannah bought some. I'm also glad everyone is busy talking to each other at the other end of the table.

Hannah looks at Guthrie and says, "what is he talking about?" She smiles and puts butter on her roll.

"Um, do you have any M&M's?" He asks.

"No. I was going to buy some later this week. I didn't know...,"

"What! You don't have any M&M's!" Josh yells.

Now everyone's quiet and looking at him. "Is there a problem?" Adam asks Josh. Guthrie and I look at each other and Guthrie puts his finger to his lips telling me to be quiet.

"Yes!" Josh yells. "Guthrie said we'd get M&M's if we won the game and we won! Now Hannah says there aren't any M&M's!"

"Technically you didn't win," I tell him. Guthrie glares at me.

"That's 'cause you guys ditched us!" Caleb yells.

"No we didn't!" I yell.

Adam yells, "stop! Not another word!" He looks at Guthrie and says, "what are the boys talking about?"

Guthrie just stares at him.

"We played a game with them," I say and then I yell at the boys, "and you lost!"

"We did not!"

"Hold it!" Adam yells. "Heidi, I wasn't talking to you!" He looks at Guthrie again. "What's going on?"

Guthrie still stares at him and doesn't say a word.

"They made us play hide-and-go-seek and when we hid they never came and found us!" Caleb yells and lots of my brothers laugh.

"Yes we did! You weren't hiding!" I yell.

"Heidi, that's enough!" Adam yells.

"They said if we won they'd give us M&M's!" Josh yells.

"You didn't win!" I yell back.

Adam glares at me and points his finger at me. "Go!" He says.

I glare back at him. "Where?"

The telephone rings and nobody gets up to answer it. Adam finally says to Evan, Ford and Daniel because they're closest to the phone, "are one of you going to get that?"

"Heck no," Evan says. "And miss this?" They laugh and Adam glares at them.

Ford gets up and walks over to the phone. We all listen to him say hello. Then he says, "Hannah, it's Tiffany."

Hannah wipes her mouth with her napkin and stands up.

Adam says, "when you're done talking to her, I want to talk to her husband."

We all eat quietly while we try to listen to Hannah talking on the phone. After a while she comes in and tells the boys their mom wants to talk to them. After they leave Brian asks Adam what he's going to talk to their dad about.

"I just want to make sure he knows how his boys are behaving and how difficult their stay has been for us. I don't know how well that's going to go over though since some of you," he glares at Evan, Ford and Guthrie, "decided to scare them and someone," he glares at me, "got them lost!"

"Adam, they're nothing but trouble!" Evan says.

"Yeah! Double trouble!" Guthrie says and I laugh.

"Well, hopefully their dad can knock some sense into them," Crane says.

"I'd like to knock some sense into them," Brian says.

"I think we all would," Adam says.

The boys come back in the kitchen when they're done talking to their mom and Adam gets up to go talk on the phone. My brothers finish eating really fast and tell Hannah they'll have dessert later. They rush into the living room to listen to Adam. Hannah dishes ice cream for me, Guthrie, Caleb and Josh and then she joins everyone else in the living room. We eat our ice cream quietly, hoping to hear the conversation too.

We can't hear anything because Adam's not yelling. Adam likes to stay calm when he's talking to someone about a problem. That's what he does when he talks to my principal when I get in trouble. If he doesn't agree with something, he talks about it calmly. Now Brian would yell if something was bothering him. Adam says yelling doesn't help. So, we try to hear the conversation, but we can't. But we can hear the conversation when he hangs up the phone.

"What'd he say," Daniel asks. "You look mad Adam!"

"He said, 'boys will be boys'!"

"What?!" Brian yells. "'That's' what he said?! Call him back and I'll give him a piece of my mind!"

"Brian!" Adam yells. "Knock it off! I said my peace and he said his."

"But his kids are so mean!" Evan yells.

"And rude!" Ford says.

"Doesn't he care about that?" Crane asks.

"You can't tell someone how to parent," Adam says.

"Why not?!" Brian yells. "Those boys ought to be taken over someone's knee! If they don't shape up, I'm gonna be the one to do it! I don't see why you can't tell their dad a thing or two about parenting!"

"You just can't Brian! The only thing we can do is tell the boys they need to follow our rules while they're staying here..,"

"You told them that earlier today and look at how that turned out!" Brian yells. He sounds really mad.

"I know! And I'm going to talk to them again! Brian, let me handle this! If I'm not going to get support from the parents, I'll have to figure out something else. I thought the dad would help out with this, but he won't."

"Adam's right," Hannah says. "Let him handle this."

"I sure hope you don't invite them back, Hannah!" Brian yells.

"Brian!"

"It's ok Adam," Hannah says. "I'm sorry, I didn't know these little boys would be such a problem. Their mom is a really nice person. I just assumed her boys would be too. As it turns out, I was wrong. _Very_ wrong."

Crane says, "we know Hannah. This isn't Hannah's fault guys. Let's let Adam handle this."

Then Brian asks, "the parents didn't say anything about not being able to pick them up tomorrow, did they?"

"No," Hannah says.

"Good. I'm gonna go into town," Brian says. "Who's coming?"

I think everyone says they want to.

"It's a school night," Adam says. I'm pretty sure he's talking to Evan, Ford and Daniel.

"It's a teacher work day tomorrow," Ford tells him.

"Oh. Ok, you can all go. Do Heidi and Guthrie have tomorrow off too?"

"Yes," Hannah says.

Guthrie and I look at each other and smile. We can hear my brothers getting ready to go to town when we hear Adam yell, "wait a minute! You two aren't going! You're grounded remember."

We hear Ford and Evan groan and then they come into the kitchen and dish some ice cream for themselves. Adam comes in and looks at us. "It looks like you are finished with your ice cream. Come into the living room so we can talk. Evan, Ford, you help Hannah with the dishes when you're done."

They groan as they say ok. The four of us follow Adam into the living room. "Sit down," he says as he points to the couch.

Why do we all have to sit on the same couch! I scoot as far away from Caleb as I can when he sits next to me and he smiles at me and scoots closer so I stand up and move to the other side of Guthrie and when Caleb follows me and I try to move away from him, I feel Adam lift me up and set me down hard on the couch as he says, "stay there and don't move!" Then he guides Caleb to the other side of the couch, and then Adam sits down on the other couch and looks at us. "What did you do at the river?"

I can answer that! "We caught snakes and frogs, and waded in the water, and looked for..,"

"_We_ didn't!" Caleb yells.

"Calm down!" Adam says. "What do you mean Caleb?"

"They said we were gonna play hide-and-go-seek and told us to hide. Then they never came and found us! We were waiting forever!"

Josh adds, "they told us if we stayed hidden for a long time we'd get M&M's!"

"You didn't stay hidden!" I yell. "You lost!"

"Heidi!" Adam yells. "Guthrie is this true? Did they hide and you guys never looked for them?"

"We looked for them!" I yell and Guthrie jabs me in the side. "We just..,"

Adam yells really loud, "Heidi! I'm not talking to you!" He scares me a little so I start to cry.

Josh laughs and says, "what a baby!"

That's it for me. My brothers always say I take after Brian with my temper. Adam says we're both like firecrackers. We get angry quick, and don't think before we say or do something like I'm about to now. I get up and lunge at Josh and then I feel someone pulling me off of him and I look up and it's Adam. He picks me up and carries me into the kitchen.

"Hannah, can you get Josh and Caleb in the bath so I can talk to Heidi and Guthrie alone?" He asks her.

"Sure," she says. She puts her dish towel down and walks into the living room where I hear her tell the boys it's time for a bath.

Adam sets me on top of the table and looks at me with his serious face and then talks in his serious voice. "You need to calm down. I'm getting really angry with you. We're going to go back in the living room and you, me and Guthrie are going to talk. _Talk_ not yell. Understand?"

I nod my head. As long as _he_ doesn't yell, _I_ won't yell. I jump down from the table and follow him into the living room. He sits on the coffee table in front of the couch Guthrie's sitting on and waits for me to sit down in front of him. "Why are you sitting there?" I ask him as I glare at him. When I see the look on his face I yell, "never mind!" And I quickly sit down.

Calmly Adam says, "Guthrie, tell me about the game you played at the river. Not you," he points to me and then he looks at Guthrie, "you."

Guthrie explains the game we played and how we ditched them. Adam doesn't look happy about that. "Do you have anything to add to his story?" He asks me.

"Yeah, you know that turtle trap we made? Something broke it." Adam glares at me so I add, "something big."

He rubs his forehead with his fingers and says, "Heidi, that's _not_ what I'm talking about."

"But that's what I had to add," I tell him. "Josh and Caleb had the Cokes too, and..,"

"We're not talking about that yet. We're talking about how you ditched those two little boys! What if they went looking for you and got lost?"

Guthrie whispers to me, "don't say what I think you're going to say!"

"I don't think anyone here would mind if they were lost," I say. Guthrie groans and Adam looks madder.

"I would!" He yells. "I'm disappointed in both of you! I asked you to take them to the river to play _with_ them, not ditch them!"

I start to cry and yell, "but they're so mean! I don't want to play with them! I don't want to be around them at all! Please don't make us play with them tomorrow! Please?!"

Adam sighs and says, "I know this is hard for you. I'm sorry. Come here." I stand up and he hugs me while I cry and when I'm done he lets me sit on his lap.

"Let me think about a plan for tomorrow," he says. "Now tell me about the Coke."

"We told them they couldn't have any," I tell him.

"Heidi was getting ready to fight with them because they weren't listening to us," Guthrie says. "I told her you guys would understand if we told them not to and they did it anyway."

Adam gives me a squeeze. "That's right. You guys aren't responsible for what those boys do if you tell them not to. I'm glad you didn't fight with them Heidi."

"Guthrie wouldn't let me," I tell him.

"Good. Now tell me about the digging you were doing in the backyard."

Guthrie and I look at each other and don't know what to say.

"We found some bones," I finally say.

"Why were you looking for bones in the first place? You know I don't want you doing that."

"Sorry," Guthrie says. "The boys wanted to do it and we went along with it."

"There's a reason why I don't want you doing that."

"Because my brain will go crazy?" I ask.

Adam laughs a little. "No, not your brain. Your imagination. I'm guessing you're going to be having some nightmares tonight. I don't want you two digging there anymore. I guess I didn't make myself clear about that, or did I?"

"You did," Guthrie says. "We just thought we could blame it on Caleb and Josh."

Adam sighs and stands up with me and sits down on the couch next to Guthrie. I settle in on his lap and he says, "these boys are driving us crazy aren't they?"

Guthrie laughs and I giggle. Adam sighs again and puts his hand on Guthrie's knee. "I guess I'll have Hannah stay home tomorrow and watch you guys."

"I think _you_ should stay home and watch us tomorrow," Guthrie says. "They don't seem to like to do what a woman tells them to do either."

"I think you're right." Adam kisses the top of my head and asks, "Heidi, what did they say to you earlier today that made you so mad?"

I don't want to tell him so I shrug my shoulders.

"I'd like you to tell me," he says quietly.

"I can't."

"Why? You know you can tell me anything."

"I can't tell you this."

Hannah and the boys come downstairs and they're all ready for bed even though it's not bedtime yet.

"Guthrie go take your bath now," Adam tells him. "Heidi, I'm going to talk to the boys now." I get off his lap and Hannah asks me to come help her in the kitchen.

"Let's get you up here on the counter," she says. "I haven't had a chance to look at your face yet."

I groan. "Hannah you're not gonna put the stinging stuff on, are you?"

She lifts me up and sets me on the counter. Then she lifts my chin up. "You've got a pretty good shiner," she says. I move my face away from her fingers. She smiles and says, "hold still. I'm not going to touch anything. I'm just checking to see if your brothers cleaned you up right."

"Brian did." I look at Hannah's face while she's looking at mine and I think about what the boys said earlier to me. I know Hannah loves me, but does she love me as much as my real mom would? Can she love me that much? Does a mom love their kid more than anyone else can?

"Heidi, you're staring at me. What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," I lie.

She smiles and says, "you can tell me."

I shake my head no and then we both look towards the living room because we hear the boys crying. I look at Hannah and start to jump off the counter, but Hannah won't let me. "Adam's with them. Let him take care of it."

"Is he talking to them? I don't hear him yelling at them."

"I don't know, now lift your chin up so I can look at your lip."

I do that and when she's done she gives me a hug. Adam walks into the kitchen and right up to me. He scoops me up and says, "you and me are going to go have a little talk."

He walks to the back door with me and carries me out to the bench on the porch. I can't tell if he's mad at me and I sure don't know what he wants to talk about.


	10. Chapter 10

"What'd you want to talk to me about?" I ask Adam. We're sitting on the bench out on the back porch. I find a stick laying near the bench and I pick it up. I stand by the bench and scratch at some peeling paint on it with the stick. "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Whatever Caleb and Josh said I did, they're lying!"

"Would you stop talking and listen for a minute," Adam says.

"Ok," I say as I scratch paint off.

"I want you to tell me what the boys said to you that was so mean you wanted to fight with them."

"I don't want to," I tell him as I scratch off a big area of paint.

"Heidi, why did you tell the boys their parents didn't love them when they found out they weren't being picked up tonight?"

I stop scratching and stare at the stick. Then I shrug my shoulders and start scratching the paint again.

"Did they say something like that to you?" He waits for me to answer and when I don't he says, "Heidi, are you listening to me?"

"Yep."

He puts his hand on my hand that's holding the stick to make me stop scratching. "Look at me."

"I don't want to. I don't want to talk about this." I try to free my hand but I can't because he's stronger. He takes the stick out of my hand and lays it on the porch. He moves me so I'm standing in between his legs and lifts my chin up with his hand.

"Did they say something about mom and dad?" That makes my eyes water. "Did they say mom and dad didn't love you?"

"No." I stare at him and a tear runs down my cheek that he wipes away with his thumb. I look at him and ask, "why did mom and dad have so many kids?"

"Our mom and dad had so many kids because they loved kids and wanted to have a big family to love."

"Are you sure it's not because they were trying to have a girl?"

"I'm sure. What makes you think that?"

"Did they die because they had a girl?"

"What?! Heidi, _what_ would _ever_ make you think that?!"

I shrug my shoulders.

"Would you talk to me please? You know why they died and it didn't have anything to do with having a girl. Tell me why they died Heidi."

I shrug my shoulders again. "I guess they were in an accident. But I don't really know that for sure because I was a baby when it happened."

Adam sighs. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Talking like this. You know they were in an accident."

"Did my mom love me?"

"Yes."

"Does a mom love their kid more than anyone else?"

"What do you mean?"

"A mom loves her baby. But if the mom dies and the baby has no mom, no one can love the baby as much as the mom would've."

"What? I love you."

"You're not a mom." I look in his eyes and say, "Hannah loves me, but she can't love me like a mom would, because she's not my mom."

"Who told you that?" He stares at me and when I don't answer he says, "oh, the boys did. Heidi, you need to tell me exactly what those boys told you because I think you let them confuse you."

I sigh. "Ok. They said Hannah can't love me as much as a real mom could."

"That's not true."

"I don't know that. They have a mom. I don't. How am I supposed to know what a mom's love is like?"

He puts me on his lap and hugs me. "You know what a dad's love is like."

"No I don't. You're not a real dad. Josh and Caleb said you can't be my dad because you're my brother. When I told them you were too my dad, they laughed and said I have seven dads then."

Adam laughs.

"Why are you laughing at that?" I ask him.

"Are you trying to tell me Guthrie's your dad?"

I look up at him and laugh. "No. That's funny!"

"Well if you're believing _them_, that's what you're saying." We laugh some more and then he stops and says seriously, "Heidi, I want you to listen to me." He lifts my chin up to look at him. "I love you just as much as dad loved you. Hannah loves you just as much as mom loved you. You are surrounded by a family that loves you a lot. Just because you don't have mom and dad in your life doesn't mean you're not loved just as much. And by the way, I am _too_ a real dad!" He smiles and I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him.

"I love you Adam." Then I squeeze him as tight as I can and whisper, "I mean dad."

We stay outside for a little while longer and then go inside because we're starting to get cold.

* * *

I hurry up and take my bath because I hear a lot of laughing coming from downstairs. I wonder what everyone is doing. When I open the door Guthrie, Josh and Caleb are wrestling with Evan and Ford. I love wrestling with my brothers! I run downstairs and run up to Evan from behind and wrap my arms around his neck and try to pull him down. He's on his knees already and Caleb is pushing him from the front so it's easy to get him down. He's not down for long though because in one fast movement he's up and has me pinned. Caleb tries to pull him off, but he can't. We're all laughing and I call out for help.

"Guthrie! Josh! Help me!"

They stop wrestling Ford and help Caleb try to pull Evan off me. Ford tries to pull them away. It's fun playing like this with my brothers. It's also nice to see Josh and Caleb laughing and having fun too. No one's fighting or arguing or complaining.

When we're all tired of playing we sit and lay around on the floor catching our breath. When Hannah walks in from the kitchen she says, "so much for your baths! You're all sweaty!" She's smiling at us so I know she's not mad. Then she says, "let's get the sleeping bags out. Heidi, are you sleeping down here?"

I look over at Josh and Caleb and decide I'm not that mad at them right now so I tell her yes. We all help with the bags and I'm surprised Josh and Caleb are helping too. I wonder what Adam said to them.

Once the bags are laying out and we're sitting on them, we all complain to Hannah that we're not tired.

"You guys are too wound up from wrestling. Evan, Ford, why don't you get your guitars out and we'll sing some songs to get everyone calm and settled down."

They get their guitars and I get up to say goodnight to Adam. He's sitting at the table in the kitchen so I walk up to him and stand next to him to watch what he's doing. He's looking at 'the books'.

"Whatcha doing?" I ask. I know 'the books' are how my brothers keep track of our money so I know he's writing numbers.

"Recording these receipts."

"Receipts for what?"

"Stuff we've bought this week."

"What stuff?"

He puts the pencil down and looks at me. "Are you trying to get out of going to bed?"

I smile at him and say, "no. I just came to say goodnight."

He smiles back and says, "goodnight." Then he picks up the pencil again and starts writing numbers.

I put my hands on my hips and say, "that's it?! Just _goodnight_?"

He laughs and puts the pencil down and says, "no. I'm just teasing you." He gets up and picks me up and carries me into the living room. Everyone is singing and Adam puts me down on my sleeping bag and sits on the couch next to Hannah. I get up and go sit on his lap and listen to the singing. Sometimes I just like to listen to my family sing. I listen to Adam's voice as he sings and I feel happy in his arms. I look at Hannah and she smiles at me. After about five songs I think the boys, Guthrie and I are all listening instead of singing. Hannah gets up and turns all the lights off except for the lamp on the end table. Adam gets up with me and sets me on my sleeping bag and I crawl inside. He gives me a kiss on my forehead and then sits back down on the couch next to Hannah. They're singing lullaby songs and after two, I close my eyes and fall asleep.

* * *

I open my eyes when I hear the front door close. I lay there and watch Brian, Crane and Daniel walk into the kitchen. The light is on in there and Adam's sleeping bag is empty so he must be in there. I sit up and look around the room. Guthrie, Josh and Caleb are asleep. No one else is in here. I listen to the talking coming from the kitchen.

"How were the boys after we left?" Crane asks.

"Yeah, were they any better?" Brian asks.

"Yes, I talked to them for a while and we came to an understanding."

"Did they tell you what they said to Heidi?"

"Yes. Those boys are a piece of work. They told her Hannah couldn't love her as much as a real mom would and that I couldn't be her dad and they told her mom and dad had so many kids because they wanted a girl and when they finally got one they died. According to Heidi, they thought that was pretty funny."

"What?!" Brian yells.

"Sh. You'll wake them up," Hannah says quietly.

"Why would they say something so mean?" Crane asks.

"Because they're mean." I'm not sure who said that, but I think it was Ford.

"Wait, are you saying Heidi believed what they were saying?"

"Apparently. She was pretty convinced Hannah and I couldn't love her as much as mom and dad because we weren't her real mom and dad."

"Did you tell her that wasn't true?"

"Of course. I think they confused her pretty bad, but we sorted it all out."

They start talking about who was in town and I get bored so I lay down and don't listen for a while until I hear, "did you see those bones they dug up?"

I sit up fast.

"Yeah, what do you think they're from?" Daniel asks.

"I think the new ones were bird bones."

"How do you think they got buried there?"

"I don't know. I don't even know how long they've been there for."

"Maybe the bird was someone's pet," Crane suggests.

"Yeah, maybe it's the little girl's pet bird. You know, the little girl that's buried there." There's lots of laughing until Hannah tells everyone to be quiet.

"What was the little girl's name again?"

"Molly," Adam says.

"That's right," Evan says. "Maybe the axe murderer killed Molly's bird too and buried it next to her." There's more laughing and then they start talking about something else.

I wonder if the bones are from Molly's pet bird. I lay awake for a while thinking about Molly until I fall asleep again.

* * *

"Adam." I shake him a little bit. "Adam, wake up." I'm talking quietly so I don't wake everybody else up. "Adam." I shake him harder until he opens his eyes. I'm out of my sleeping bag and kneeling next to him trying to wake him up.

"What?"

"Adam, we forgot to put the bones back."

"What?"

"The bones. You know, the bones we dug up."

"Go back to sleep," he says as he closes his eyes and turns over.

"Adam," I say a little louder and I shake him. "Adam."

"Go back to sleep before you wake everybody up."

"Adam," I start to cry, "we have to put the bones back or Molly's gonna be mad."

"No she won't. Now go back to sleep."

I call Adam's name about three more times, but get no response.

"Guthrie." I kneel on the other side now and try to wake up Guthrie. "Guthrie." I call out as I shake him.

He opens his eyes and groans.

"Guthrie, we have to put the bones back."

He opens his eyes wide and sits up. "Oh no! I can't believe we forgot!"

"I know. Molly's gonna be mad. I tried to get Adam up, but he won't."

"I guess we'll have to put them back," he says.

"I'm too scared."

"Me too, but isn't it scarier if we don't put them back?"

"Yes." I move back over to Adam and shake him. "Adam. Adam." I keep shaking until he turns over and looks at me.

"Go back to sleep."

"No. Adam, we have to put the bones back. Molly's gonna be mad if we don't."

Adam groans and sits up. He's sees Guthrie up too and says, "do you see why I don't want you digging for dead bodies? Now both of you are up and you're scared. I'm not going outside. Now go back to sleep." He lays down and closes his eyes.

"I guess we have to put them back ourselves," I tell Guthrie.

Adam sits up again and says, "no you're not. You're not going outside. You're going to lay back down and go to sleep. Now!"

I start to cry quietly. "Adam, we have to put them back. Please?"

"Heidi, nothing's going to happen if we don't put them back. There's no Molly, and there's nothing to be scared about."

"Yes there is. She's mad at us," I tell him.

"Then stop digging up her grave!"

That makes me cry harder and Adam scoots closer to me and hugs me. "I'm sorry," he says. "But there really isn't anything to be scared of. Remember? We've talked about this before. There are no dead bodies buried on our ranch."

"You don't know that!" I cry.

"Sh. Heidi, I don't want you to wake everybody up."

"Adam, I'm scared too," Guthrie says.

Adam sighs and says, "fine. Where are the bones?"

I look at Guthrie because I don't know where they are. He says, "I think they're out on the back porch."

"You _think_?" Adam asks.

"Yes. I'm not really sure."

"I'm not gonna go look for these bones, so if I don't see them, I'm coming back inside." Adam gets up to put his shoes on.

I stand up. "Wait! How are we gonna know if you really put them back?"

Adam looks at me and he sounds frustrated when he says, "do you _want_ me to put them back, or not?"

Evan sits up and says, "what are you guys doing?"

"I'm putting bones back."

Evan groans and lays back down.

"Should we go with you?" Guthrie asks.

"No. Stay in here and go to sleep."

"I can't," I tell him. "How do I know if you really put them back or not? You also have to bury them deep enough or Molly's still gonna be mad!"

Adam sighs and closes his eyes for a minute.

"Adam?" I ask. "Are you sleeping while you're standing up?"

His eyes open and he says, "no I'm not sleeping! I'm thinking!"

"With your eyes closed?"

"Stop talking," Adam tells me. He walks towards the kitchen and I follow him.

"Promise me you'll put them back?"

"I promise Heidi. Go lay back down. I'll be in soon."

I watch him walk out the back door after he turns the porch light on. I run to the door and open it. "Don't you need a flashlight?" I ask him.

He turns around and glares at me. "I guess so. Go bring me Guthrie's."

I run back into the living room and tell Guthrie to give me his flashlight.

"Is he really putting them back?" He asks.

"I guess so. I'm gonna go wait in the kitchen."

Guthrie follows me in there just as Adam comes inside.

"That was fast," I say.

"Did you find them?" Guthrie asks.

"Yes. They were at the bottom of the stairs. Now go back to bed."

"Did you bury them deep," I ask as I glare at him.

He glares back and says, "yes, I _buried_ them deep. Now get back to bed!"

I put my hands on my hips and say, "how'd you bury them without a shovel?!"

Adam looks at me and he looks kind of mad. Then Guthrie says, "yeah, how'd you bury them? We put all the shovels away."

Adam looks tired and rubs his forehead with his hand. "I buried them with my hands," he finally says.

"What?! That's not gonna be deep enough! You probably just threw them in the hole!"

"Be quiet! You're going to wake everybody up! I'm tired of this. Get back in your sleeping bags and go to sleep. Now!"

"But," I start to say.

"No buts! Get to bed!"

Guthrie and I glare at each other and slowly make our way to the living room and back to our sleeping bags. Adam follows and we all lay down.

"Adam. I'm afraid of Molly."

"There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Adam, what if Molly comes to get me?"

I think I hear him say something under his breath so I ask him the question again.

"She's not going to come get you. Close your eyes and go to sleep."

"But what if she does?"

He sits up and says quietly, "I've had it with you. There are no ghosts, there's no Molly, there are no bodies buried on our ranch, and there's nothing to be scared of. Close your eyes now."

I stare at him and he tells me to close them again, so I do.

"Now think about something happy."

I open my eyes up.

"Keep your eyes closed!"

I close them again. "I can't think of anything."

"Then think some more!"

"Ok, I thought of something."

"Good. What?"

"I'm riding Lucy."

"Good. Now just keep thinking about that and you'll go to sleep."

"Ok." I'm quiet for a minute and then I say, "we're riding to the river and...,"

"Think to yourself!"

"Ok." I'm quiet again until I say, "Adam! She's talking to me now and she's scaring me!"

Adam scoots close to me in his sleeping bag and says, "stop thinking about that." He hugs me close to him with me in my sleeping bag and says, "close your eyes and listen to my voice."

He starts to sing a lullaby to me. It's one of my favorites and I start to feel happy. And tired. I keep my eyes closed and fall asleep while listening to his voice.

* * *

When I wake up in the morning and I sit up and look around, I'm the only one in the living room. I stretch and get up and go into the kitchen.

"Good morning," Hannah says.

"Good morning."

"There's cereal for breakfast and I cooked some sausage. Do you want some toast?"

"No thanks." I get a bowl and pour some cereal while Hannah pours a glass of orange juice for me.

She sits down at the table next to me. She's staring at me so I ask, "what?"

"Heidi, you know I love you, right?"

I nod my head slowly while I put a spoonful of cereal in my mouth. I stare at her as I chew.

"I want to make sure you know I love you a lot. I love you as much as a mother would love her daughter."

"But you're not my mom. I don't mean anything bad by that."

"That doesn't mean I can't love you like one."

"But don't moms love their kids differently than everyone else?"

"I don't know. What I do know is, I love you very, very much."

"But if you have your own baby will still love me?"

"Of course."

"The same amount as you do now?"

"Yes."

I shrug my shoulders and say, "ok."

She acts like she's hurt but I know she's teasing. "What?! _Ok_? That's all I get is an ok?!"

I smile at her and get up and give her a hug. She smells good. She always smells like pretty flowers. "I love you Hannah. A lot."

"I love you too, Heidi."

* * *

After breakfast I go out to the barn where Guthrie, Josh, and Caleb are helping Adam with chores. The boys are helping without complaining.

"When are they going home?" I ask Guthrie quietly.

"Any minute now."

"Where is everyone?"

"Adam told them all to go away until the boys were picked up. I think they're out fixing a fence somewhere. Adam told Brian he especially didn't want him around when the boy's parents came. He's afraid Brian's gonna yell at the dad."

"I wonder if Adam's gonna yell at their dad." I help out with the chores in the barn and pretty soon we hear a car driving on our driveway. We all look to see who it is and the boys start yelling, "they're here! They're here!" They run off towards the car.

"I'm staying here," I tell Guthrie. Hannah says it's nice to walk your guests out to their car to say goodbye, but I'm not gonna this time.

"I don't think Hannah or Adam will mind if we stay over here," Guthrie says.

We climb up and sit on the fence to watch them leave. Hannah walks out of the house with the boy's bags and talks to Tiffany while Adam walks a little bit away from them with the boys and their dad. Adam has his serious face on as he's talking to the dad.

"Do you think Adam's gonna yell at him?" I ask Guthrie.

"No, not Adam. I think if Brian were there he would've punched their dad by now."

"I know. Look, their dad looks like he's yelling at his boys, it sounds like it too." We can hear yelling but not what's being said. When he's done yelling, it looks like he talks to Adam. I hope he doesn't yell at him too. He doesn't and I watch them shake hands. We watch Hannah give Tiffany a hug and then she hugs the boys goodbye. They all get in the car and drive away. Adam and Hannah hug each other for a long time. Then they kiss. Yuck!

When Adam comes back to the barn he tells me and Guthrie to grab a shovel. We jump off the fence and go get them out of the barn. Adam grabs one too. We follow Adam towards the house.

"Are you gonna help us dig for bones?!" I ask excitedly.

"No."

"Then what are we doing?" I ask.

"You'll see."

We follow him to the back of the house and over to the grave we were digging up.

"What are we doing Adam?" Guthrie asks.

"We're putting the dirt back."

Guthrie and I look at each other and sigh. We help Adam put all the dirt back that we dug out. When it's all back we pat it down with the back of our shovels. When that's finished Adam looks at us and we look at him.

"I want you two to listen to me very carefully," he says in his serious voice. I do _not_ want you to dig here EVER again! Not with friends, not with your brothers, not by yourselves! Do you understand me?"

We stare at him and Guthrie says yes while I nod my head.

"Good. I mean it. I don't want to see or hear of you digging here ever again."

"Even when we're adults?" I ask.

Guthrie groans and Adam says, "yes! Even when you're adults!" He glares at me.

"Why?" I ask. "I mean, if we're adults you would think we..,"

"Stop talking!" Adam yells at me. Then he calmly says, "if I catch you digging here again you're going to be sorry. Understand?"

We both say yes.

"Good. Grab your shovels. We're going to go help your brothers with the fence."

I jump up and down. "Yeah! I get to help?!"

"Yes." He kneels down in front of me and says, "this is a chance for you to show me you're big enough and responsible enough to help me again. That means no wandering off and no goofing off. I want you to do the work you're told to do. Not making up different games to play or going around bugging everyone else that's working."

"Ok." I tell him.

"Good take your shovel and get in the jeep. We've got a lot of holes to dig."

Guthrie and I run to the jeep. I'm so glad I get to help my brothers.

* * *

Adam drives us out to the north pasture where everyone else is. When we jump out Brian tells us where he wants us to dig. He points to some fence posts and tells us to dig around them. We start digging. After a while I take a break to watch Daniel, Ford and Evan working with the barbed wire fencing. I'm glad I'm not working with that. Crane is nailing something and Adam and Brian are digging holes around fence posts like we are, only they're working a little bit farther down from us.

"Hey Guthrie, do you think there are bodies buried out here somewhere?"

He stops digging and looks at me.

"You know, like Indians, or Forty-Niners?"

"Adam says there aren't any bodies buried on our ranch," he reminds me.

"How does he know? Our ranch is a big place."

"That's what I was thinking," he says.

"I bet if we stopped digging around this fence post and started digging in-between our fence posts, we'd find something. Like a bone or maybe even buried treasure!" I yell.

"Adam said we're not supposed to do that."

"No he didn't. He said not to make up a game to play. This isn't a game. Just think how happy he'll be if we find buried treasure!"

"Or gold!" Guthrie says.

We stop digging around our fence poles and start digging our own hole. I can't wait to see what we find! Adam is going to be so happy!

* * *

**Thank you so much for reading my story. I hope you liked it. Thank you to those of you who have reviewed. Reviews really mean a lot to me and they help motivate me to write. I've got a few ideas for the next story, so look for it soon.**


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